Deserter's Songs is the fourth studio album by American rock band Mercury Rev, released in late September 1998.

Limited edition copies of the album came in a brown cardboard envelope-like package, with a stamp on the cover postmarked with the release date, as well as two art postcards.

Surprisingly, Deserter's Songs was their most successful album, bringing them popularity in the UK and Europe, also making a smaller mark in the US.

Influenced by this decidedly non-rock musical source, the frontman started composing and recording simple melodies on the piano.

[3] Donahue was approached at this time by The Chemical Brothers and asked to play on a song of theirs called "The Private Psychedelic Reel".

[7] Following his Chemical Brothers collaboration, Donahue started talking to Mercury Rev guitarist Sean "Grasshopper" Mackowiak, and the two began sharing and recording musical ideas.

[7] Their new record label, fully aware of Mercury Rev's unpredictable and chaotic past, cautiously began funneling money to the band piecemeal to complete the album.

An advance copy of the album had been sent to The Chemical Brothers, who in turn began raving to the press that Mercury Rev had created something special.

"[4] Donahue added: "It had the feeling of rebirth, of going down to the grave for quite a while and lying down there in the darkness and the quiet, and then someone pulls you up and shakes the dirt off you and says 'no, you thought you were dead, but you're not.'"

[22] As Mercury Rev was completing work on Deserter's Songs at Tarbox Road with Dave Fridmann, the producer was simultaneously helping the Flaming Lips craft their breakthrough album The Soft Bulletin in the same studio.

"[23]The hidden track at the end of "Delta Sun Bottleneck Stomp" is played on the Tettix Wave Accumulator, an instrument built by Donahue and Grasshopper.

Mercury Rev released their seventh studio album Snowflake Midnight on Deserter's Songs' actual 10-year anniversary, September 29, 2008.

All lyrics by Jonathan Donahue, except "Hudson Line" by Sean "Grasshopper" Mackowiak, and "Delta Sun Bottleneck Stomp" by Jimy Chambers.

A special edition of the album was released in 2005 with a bonus DVD, featuring an album-length companion film to Deserter's Songs as well as two music videos (directed by Anton Corbijn) and an audio remix track: In 2011, a further reissue of the album surfaced, this time a double-disc "Deluxe Edition" via V2/Cooperative.

Unlike previous repackagings, which featured tracks also found spread across various singles and promotional releases, this edition contained a full disc's worth of exclusive material, dubbed Deserted Songs.