I have often referred to this as a Walt Disney song gone awry, because it has some instrumental touches that remind me of things from movies like Cinderella and similar classic Disney animated movies (especially the twinkling piano at the very end of the song); there’s also an epic sweep to the orchestral touches that go beyond the traditional pop use of full orchestras towards something more similar to movie soundtracks, these days. This is a melancholy song, a fragile song, that was the soundtrack to my life when I first heard it for reasons I can’t quite explain; I didn’t even really have anything in my life that it tracked to, at the time, but I found myself playing this on repeat over and over. I think it was desire more than true echo; I wanted my life to be filled with the passion and longing that’s present in “Tonite It Shows,” the possibility of magic peeking around the corner at every moment. Mercury Rev have never sounded better, to me.
Being an internet refuge for Graeme McMillan