MERCY - John Cale: Review
John Cale
is one of the most interesting and innovative voices in art-rock and avant-garde and has been for six decades now. After being a founding member of The Velvet Underground John Cale embarked on a long career of solo work and behind-the-scenes efforts that includes dozens of legendary artists and collaborators. MERCY is Cale's first studio album since 2016's M:FANS and his first album of new material in over a decade.
Review by Lav:
If you pay attention to the opinions I express online then it's probably no secret to you that I'm a pretty big fan of The Velvet Underground. But what I've done a poor job expressing in the past is just how much I value John Cale, not only his solo work but what he contributed to the velvets and his work with other artists like Nico and Patti Smith. If you want a place to start, his album Paris 1919 is an underrated classic of the 70s. But MERCY may be a big first step if you're trying to get into Cale, and not one that's well representative of the rest of his discography. Instead of art-rock and avant-garde this record is much more inspired by minimalist electronica and the deepest murmurs of R&B.
I almost missed this record entirely and the biggest reason for that is that I didn't love either of the singles. In fact, even within the context of the record, I'm not crazy about them because they both do a good job building up to their climax, but crash instead of soar. STORY OF BLOOD came first and is the longest song on the record on top of sporting vocal contributions from Weyes Blood. There's things I like about it and I appreciate the way it builds up, but the crescendos end up sounding very awkward with the swelling instrumentation taking away from the impact the vocals should have. Similarly, NIGHT CRAWLING falls short in its biggest moment but this time it's the vocals themselves that come up short. It's a very weird and warbling performance that kind of fails to meet the moment.
While we're talking letdowns there are two deep cuts I want to mention. Time Stands Still is pretty interesting at first with its Sylvan Esso feature and thudding electronic beat underneath the song. Unfortunately, I think the track kind of shoots itself in the foot by contrasting that style when the beat disappears and it achieves something much more directly blissful. It instantly shows me a version of the song that would be much improved. I Know You're Happy also let me down even though seeing Tei Shi in the tracklist got my interest immediately. But the tracks stuff beat which doesn't even start to develop meaningfully until after two minutes in and the kind of languid vocal refrains all fail to engage me.
Despite some moments I'm not crazy about, this record turned out to be a really interesting and entrancing journey. The record opens up with a pair of songs featuring some electronic music producers whose names I didn't expect to see. Mercy features Laurel Halo though you wouldn't really be able to tell from just how reserved everything is. The gentle synthetic drums and distant synthy instrumental palette make for a fascinating start to the record that rewards patient listening. Marilyn Monroe's Legs comes next and sees Cale teaming up with Actress for an even more unexpected but excellent collaboration. When they dial the instrumental back and let John's chilling calls of "elsewhere: echo into space before the distorted crunching rolls back in I just ascend.
Even if there aren't necessarily any musical elements knocking my socks off immediately there are thematic devices and tracklisting that helps strengthen these songs quite a bit. NOISE OF YOU is the point on the record where the full array of instrumentation comes into shape and the songwriting gets more direct as a result. My favorite part of the song is the idea of missing the noise of someone, which feels very compelling. OUT YOUR WINDOW is the closing track and I like it a lot in concept as an album closer with a rich icy instrumental and layered vocals bringing everything to a finale. It works better as a sort of literary device than as a song but I still can't complain about it.
The first two times I listened to this record I liked it, but I wasn't quite sure what could potentially set it apart and elevate it. But the more I listened the more some of the deep cuts really started to stand out to me. MOONSTRUCK did grab me right away but it took me a while to work through just how good it actually is. It's much more sonically straightforward but where the difficulty assessing it as a critic comes in is that it's meant to tackle the difficult legacy Nico left behind. While it's largely quite impressionistic in lyrical detail save for a few specific instances, the progressive beauty of the song contributes strongly to the ambiance of the song and the message of the lyrics.
EVERLASTING DAYS stood out to me right away as it sports an Animal Collective feature with Avey and Panda on vocals and Geologist playing synths. Weirdly the song reminds me a lot of something from the last Roger Waters album but with AnCo's psych-folk veneer stretched over it. It's a unique song whose refrains grew on me with every relisten. THE LEGAL STATUS OF ICE is what I would call the most confrontational song on the album making multiple attempts in its 7-minute runtime to deliver some intense percussion and a stuttering electronic beat. It's a really interesting song whose long runtime ends up sliding by with one memorable passage after another.
My favorite track on the record is NOT THE END OF THE WORLD whose patient rattling percussion and eerie synth lines completely won me over instantly. I also love John's vocals on the track it's the best performance he gives on the whole record. The results are haunting despite the ultimate conclusion that the song isn't actually the end of all things.
MERCY surprised me. It isn't a perfect record but I went from not having much to say about it to needing to hold myself back from writing an extra thousand words. It's a testament to how innovative and exciting John Cale manages to be even this deep into his career. The album may be too long and patient for everyone, but the highlights have grown on me a lot and I suspect they'll stick with me all year. 7/10
For more experimental music check out my review of Benjamin Clementine's And I Have Been here
