Mercury Rev - In A Funny Way

JAN 17 2005 · 12:00

Mercury Rev - In A Funny Way (2005) Director: Andy Poyiadgi Era: Post-Millennial Indie Psychedelia (2005) - Mid-2000s UK indie landscape; Mercury Rev's sixth album cycle on V2 Records, marking a warmer, more pastoral turn from orchestral grandeur toward intimate psych-pop accessibility. A strong archival artifact of mid-2000s UK psychedelic indie promo culture, this video documents a moment of commercial and artistic recalibration for Mercury Rev. Its technical fingerprint, high saturation, warm tonality, rapid cutting, is distinctive of the era's indie visual grammar. As a confirmed work by Andy Poyiadgi, it is also a rare early music video example from a director who went on to build a significant career in broadcast and commercial production. Tier 1.5 due to confirmed director attribution, charting single status, and aesthetic cohesion. Context: Released in early 2005 as a UK single from The Secret Migration (V2 Records), 'In A Funny Way' arrived during a moment when the British music press was pivoting toward the post-punk revival and Arctic Monkeys-era indie rock, leaving Mercury Rev, long celebrated in the UK for Deserter's Songs (1998), somewhat adrift of prevailing trends. The Secret Migration represented the band's most melodically accessible and texturally warm record to date, a continuation of the lush, pastoral psych-pop they had refined since the late 1990s. The video's highly saturated, rapid-cut visual language reflects the era's indie promo aesthetic: low-to-mid budget but visually inventive, deploying color and editing rhythm to compensate for restrained production spend. The song charted at number 28 in the UK, making it a modest commercial success. Director notes: The music video for Mercury Rev's 'In A Funny Way' is listed on Andy Poyiadgi's official portfolio site (ajpoyiadgi.com/mercury-rev) as a directed work. The single was released in 2005 on V2 Records as part of the promotional campaign for The Secret Migration, the band's sixth studio album, where it charted at number 28 on the UK Singles Chart. A Vimeo upload of the video (vimeo.com/38312068) is attributed to Rosy Thomas in a production design capacity. No further confirmed crew details are available from sourced materials.