Mercy
by John Cale
John Cale bestography
Mercy is ranked 10th best out of 42 albums by John Cale on BestEverAlbums.com.
The best album by John Cale is Paris 1919 which is ranked number 759 in the list of all-time albums with a total rank score of 2,273.
(N.B. Bestographies include all albums by an artist (and their variations), but do not include albums ranked outside the top 100,000).
Listen to Mercy on YouTube
Mercy track list
The tracks on this album have an average rating of 76 out of 100 (all tracks have been rated).
Mercy rankings
sssvnnn
Tamthebam
neilgee
Wasinski
Repo
Leonard
bojolpif71
flamingyesdept
BozoTyrannusMercy collection
Showing all 14 members who have this album in their collection
Mercy ratings
Average Rating = (n ÷ (n + m)) × av + (m ÷ (n + m)) × AVwhere:
av = trimmed mean average rating an item has currently received.
n = number of ratings an item has currently received.
m = minimum number of ratings required for an item to appear in a 'top-rated' chart (currently 10).
AV = the site mean average rating.
Showing latest 5 ratings for this album. | Show all 63 ratings for this album.
| Rating | Date updated | Member | Album ratings | Avg. album rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 02/20/2026 23:38 | TheSmiths82-87 | 1,288 | 84/100 | |
| 12/18/2025 23:59 | Skerns | 5,091 | 80/100 | |
| 06/18/2025 09:33 | Invader666 | 2,622 | 65/100 | |
| 06/11/2025 01:58 | jnmayles | 2,218 | 73/100 | |
| 03/25/2025 22:08 | Fabien67 | 393 | 77/100 |
Rating metrics:
Outliers can be removed when calculating a mean average to dampen the effects of ratings outside the normal distribution. This figure is provided as the trimmed mean. A high standard deviation can be legitimate, but can sometimes indicate 'gaming' is occurring. Consider a simplified example* of an item receiving ratings of 100, 50, & 0. The mean average rating would be 50. However, ratings of 55, 50 & 45 could also result in the same average. The second average might be more trusted because there is more consensus around a particular rating (a lower deviation).
(*In practice, some albums can have several thousand ratings)
This album has a Bayesian average rating of 70.2/100, a mean average of 68.0/100, and a trimmed mean (excluding outliers) of 69.9/100. The standard deviation for this album is 16.8.
Mercy favourites
Showing all 4 members who have added this album as a favourite
Mercy comments
Showing all 6 comments |
Most Helpful First | Newest First | Positive Sentiment First |
Longest Comments First
(Only showing comments with -2 votes or higher. You can alter this threshold from your profile page. Manage Profile)
Very much love/hate on this one...
A blurry and ominous and atmospheric dreamscape to get lost in. John Cale calls out to the shadows and beckons spirits to join him in casting radical sonic spells. whoa. I might have to give it a few more listens as it's a pretty long project with long songs.
Arthurknight 01/30/2023 04:04 | #293406
I love John Cale, I ought to get that out of the way. However, and without making estimations about someone's health, Mercy sounds like John Cale pulling a Blackstar or a You Want it Darker but without any of the urgency. It's trying to be modern and radical, but falls flat; it wants to be profound, to open up new worlds, but even in the 90s this would sound like pastiche. Mercy sounds like a David Sylvian b-sides compilation run through auto-tune. While I want to be clear that nobody is owed a great final work – Cale can do whatever he wants – if this is to be a swan song it's an unfortunately mis-stepped one.
A guy in his mid-80s is just simply not going to suddenly self-produce a modern pop album with numerous features and pull it off. Such a sentiment is not coming from some latently ageist perspective – I'm not arguing that old dogs can't learn new tricks – but it is an honest admittance of human limitation. Cale obviously had to bring new collaborators into the studio and try to fit his material into moulds it could never go into, but to what end? Everything on this project sounds bloated. The synths sounds old in a bad way, the drum machines are flat, John Cale's voice is tired – subsequently messed with in the DAW to horrifying results – and none of the features bring anything compelling to the party other than the brief whimsical picture of them and Cale sharing a room together. They, perhaps, are on the cutting edge and Cale drags them back into the past.
Very little redeeming qualities on this one I'm afraid. The Noise of You is okay.
Album Rating: 76.83
(922/12)
Moreish crack.
1.Mercy. 68
2.Marilyn Monroe's Legs. 71
3.Noise Of You. 73
4.Story Of Blood. 72
5.Time Stands Still. 76
6.Moonstruck. 77
7.Everlasting Days. 75
8.Night Crawling. 81
9.Not The End Of The World. 84
10.The Legal Status Of Ice. 73
11.I Know You're Happy. 80
12.Out Your Window. 92
Igtonumama 01/21/2023 08:34 | #293122
End of the world cabaret in a drug induced coma. Loved it!
This comment is beneath your viewing threshold.
Your feedback for Mercy
The top comments are featured on our aggregated charts!
