Mercury Rev- Snowflake Midnight

It's pretty safe to say that the welcoming party for Mercury Rev's albums has dwindled since the last time Spin was a readable magazine. That said, faithful fans of the Rev's dreamscape ballad psych pop like me have found tremendous joy in the group's output over the last few years. With this year's release, Snowflake Midnight (which will be accompanied by an online only release), the Jonathan Donahue and company have ended any futile debate over the bands relevance. The grandiosity of the Rev's songwriting and production of late may have inspired bands like Mew to achieve a heightened awareness of the merit of melodrama, but as it stands on Mercury Rev's latest, the melodrama takes the listener to pure dissappointment.
Sure, Donahue's perfect falsetto delivery of absolutely fine lyrics are completely in check on Snowflake Midnight- but there's little else. Most of the tracks showcase very little musical ability from a band who are considered eons above their contemporaries. In fact, most of the music is reminiscent of early nineties electronic music like Moby and Robert Miles... not even a far cry from Enya at all. To be fair, there are some songs on the record worthy of repeated listens like "People are So Unpredictable" and "Butterfly's Wings", but only on the account of Donahue's aforementioned skill.
One can only hope that the online accompanyment to Midnight bears some fruit. It is increasingly difficult to defend a band with so much grandeur and resources to back it up when this is what they self-proclaim as "anxiously awaited". Let's be reasonable here.