This has to be one of the odder reviews I’ve ever done. Working with another magazine two years ago, I reviewed Longview’s Mercury, which was out in the UK on 14th Floor Records. I wasn’t sure how to frame the disc then, as it has some solid and amazing tracks, but in the end left me feeling that the entire disc was really one good long track. Nothing wrong with that, it was just a nagging footnote to what had at first seemed like a spectacular disc. But despite my reservations for Mercury’s hyper-consistency, it made my top 10 for that year.

Two years, and I suspect a good bit of record label drama later, Mercury has finally arrived on the shores of the US. Perhaps due in part to the success of Coldplay and Keane, perhaps having something to do with the fact that there was already a band here releasing discs under the moniker Longview, we are finally getting a taste of delicious Mercury. Longview have morphed into Long-View here, with both a hypen and an umlaut under the “o”, presumably to fend off the existing Longview’s lawyers.

Strangely, not only has their name changed, but so has their disc. Gone are the tracks Falling Without You and This Is, which frankly were forgettable in the first place, and in their place are the more interesting new tunes In A Dream and One More Try. Some of the other tracks have been significantly remixed, even to the extent of adding new (or at least entirely lost in the previous mix) backing vocals and guitar work. It is a radically different listening experience, and I’m thrilled to say it add some depth and dimension that was sorely lacking from the original UK release.

But rather than focus on what is new and different, let’s get to the music itself. After all, the majority of us were not silly enough to spend $25 on the first release. The outstanding track Further opens the disc in all of its orchestrated glory. It’s immediately catchy with a driving, memorable chorus and vocalist/ songwriter Rob McVey’s voice a smooth caress above the musical pomp that drives the track. Can’t Explain follows and is another shaker, but the chorus is still a little to close in approach to Further for my taste. The piano is a nice, subtle touch and the recursive “Waited for hours, hours turn to days, days turn to years, I’m still here” gets grafted onto the listener’s mind within one listen. A solid track, I’d just prefer it have a little more distance from the similar Further. When You Sleep is a more guitar-driven, aggressive track. The clean, crisp production and layering make this rather complex tune sound simple and cohesive. Lyrically things are lost in trite “I can’t forgets” and “You don’t know what you do to me’s”, but Mercury is really about the music. All three of these opening tracks are of single quality and begin to give Mercury something of a greatest hits feel.

A new track, In A Dream, sounds like a recent Embrace tune. It is anthemic and piano-driven, without the chanty choruses that precede it on the disc. It is a nice downtempo shift, giving Mercury and fullness that the UK version lacked. It has an element of that Coldplay power ballad sound, but I suspect most of these UK acts are feeling the pressure to deliver these right now. The edgy Nowhere follows and is something of a hybrid of When You Sleep and Can’t Explain, with its driving guitars and repetitive “You won’t try, you don’t care” chorus. Again, I would have preferred something with more differentiation, but it’s a great fucking track, so what can you say? If I heard the song on the radio, detached from the rest of Mercury, I would tap my feet, drive a little faster, and on some subconscious level appreciate life just a little more. And ain’t that what music is there for?

The rest of Mercury goes a long way to making this feel like some excellent compilation of a career’s work. I Would is a stunning, moving ballad- a soaring, emotional anchor also notable for the great line “I would bite off more than I could chew for you.” Electricity is another single-quality anthem, and sounds fuller and mightier than its UK counterpart. The other new track One More Try is another breath of fresh air- a jangly, upbeat pop tune that captures most of the elements that make Long-view interesting and spreads them across a single track.

In the end, Mercury is simply loaded with great songs. It is fuller and more interesting than the previous release, and will certainly appeal to fans of Britpop. I’m envious of folks who have not yet heard this release, because getting all of these great tunes at once will be almost narcotic. A great summer road trip album.