Mercy
by John Cale

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.

From 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

From Igtonumama 01/21/2023 08:34 | #293122

End of the world cabaret in a drug induced coma. Loved it!

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