Upper Wilds: Mercury - COMPACT DISCS

Upper Wilds: Mercury - COMPACT DISCS

Upper Wilds SKU: 46336620
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Orders containing preorder items are shipped as one upon release of the preorder(s)

Preorder Release Date: 08/28/2026
Title:

Mercury

Artist:

Upper Wilds

Label:

Thrill Jockey

Product Type:

COMPACT DISCS

UPC:

790377065923

Genre:

Rock

Release Date:

2026-08-28

Number of Discs:

1

Additional Details:

DIGITAL DOWNLOAD CARD

Stargazing Brooklyn noise-rock cosmonauts Upper Wilds - the power-trio led by Parts & Labor co-founder Dan Friel - return with another set of lean anthems filtered through a flamethrower. Their speediest, most explosive album yet, Mercury, is a meditation on death, with Friel expounding on his brush with skin cancer, climate change, funerals, Henry Kissinger, and a world seemingly on fire. Buoyed by recent tours with acts like Pelican, Uniform, Psychic Graveyard and Savak, the trio's increased speed is met with a precision that gives every hairpin turn more wallop.Mercury's molten, non-stop riffing is captured with grit and punch by engineer Travis Harrison (Guided By Voices, The Men) and is bolstered by longtime collaborator/saxophonist and fellow-New York mainstay Jeff Tobias (Sunwatchers) and vocalist Erin Dawson of LA-based experimental black metal band Genital Shame. Jason Binnick's basslines shine brighter than before dancing in tandem with Friel's guitar licks on "Death Song #3" and bringing equal parts melody and thunderous weight to "Green-Wood Cemetery." Jeff Ottenbacher's drumming oscillates between machine gun fills and sledge hammer pounding, giving each riff more momentum and bite.Upper Wilds' space-rock adventures through their recent albums Mars, Venus, & Jupiter came replete with stories of the heavens and humanity alike. On this fourth installment, the closest planet to the sun, things take a darker turn. The small, barren planet Mercury was named after the gods' speedy messenger and guide to the underworld, and the album syphons Upper Wilds' fuzz-pop aesthetics into concise, scorched anthems about the brevity and fragility of life with the ferocity of a band playing on the edge of extinction.

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