All Is Dream Explained

All Is Dream
Type:	Album
Artist:	Mercury Rev
Cover:	Dreammercuryrev.jpg
Released:	August 27, 2001
Genre:	Dream pop, psychedelic rock, chamber pop
Length:	49:45
Label:	V2
Producer:	Dave Fridmann, Grasshopper, Jonathan Donahue, Jeff Mercel
Prev Title:	Deserter's Songs
Prev Year:	1998
Next Title:	The Secret Migration
Next Year:	2005

All Is Dream is the fifth studio album by American rock band Mercury Rev. It was released in the United Kingdom on August 27, 2001, in France on August 28, 2001, and in the United States on September 11, 2001. The album's front cover features half of the 1991 painting Breakthrough Dreaming by artist and mystic Jennifer Hathaway.

Critical reception

All Is Dream received generally positive reviews from music critics. Q listed All Is Dream as one of the best 50 albums of 2001.^[1]

Track listing

All songs written by Jonathan Donahue, Sean "Grasshopper" Mackowiak and Jeff Mercel.

1. "The Dark Is Rising" – 4:52
2. "Tides of the Moon" – 5:13
3. "Chains" – 4:22
4. "Lincoln's Eyes" – 7:09
5. "Nite and Fog" – 3:58
6. "Little Rhymes" – 5:13
7. "A Drop in Time" – 4:20
8. "You're My Queen" – 2:33
9. "Spiders and Flies" – 4:11
10. "Hercules" – 7:52

Japanese bonus track

11. "Cool Waves" – 3:10

Limited edition bonus CD-ROM

The album was also released as a limited edition featuring a CD-ROM with the following tracks:

1. "Saw Song (Live)" (Audio track)
2. "Hercules (Live)" (Audio track)
3. "Little Rhymes (Live)" (Audio track)
4. "Nite and Fog" (Video)
5. "The Dark Is Rising" (Video)
6. "Documentary Footage" (Video)

Personnel

• Jonathan Donahue – words and acoustic guitar
• Grasshopper – moth-light guitars
• Jeff Mercel – drums and piano
• Dave Fridmann – bass guitar and Mellotron
• Tony Visconti – string arrangement, Mellotron, additional orchestration
• Mary Gavassi Fridmann – soprano vocals
• Justin Russo – Rhodes piano
• Jason Russo – electric guitar
• Rex L White – pedal steel
• Suzanne Thorpe – flute
• Joel Eckhaus – bowed saw
• Bethany Crescini – child vocals
• Katie Fox, Amy Helm and Deb Curley – female vocals
• Marc Guy – French horn
• Larry Packer – solo violin
• Gregor Kitzis – violins
• Sarah Adams, Martha Mooke, Laura Seaton – violas
• Maxine Neuman – cello
• Aaron Hurwitz – Hammond organ

In other media

In his album Falling Off the Bone, comedian Todd Barry recounts the fact that, while in Manhattan on September 11, a friend of his in the crowd recognized Barry and told him, "The new Mercury Rev album is out."

Notes and References

1. News: The Best 50 Albums of 2001. Q. December 2001. 60–65.