''Mercy'' is the seventeenth studio album by

Welsh Welsh may refer to: Related to Wales * Welsh, referring or related to Wales * Welsh language, a Brittonic Celtic language spoken in Wales * Welsh people People * Welsh (surname) * Sometimes used as a synonym for the ancient Britons (Celtic peop ...

musician and composer

John Cale John Davies Cale (born 9 March 1942) is a Welsh musician, composer, singer, songwriter and record producer who was a founding member of the American rock band the Velvet Underground. Over his six-decade career, Cale has worked in various styl ...

. It was released on 20 January 2023 by Double Six Records, making it Cale's first album of new songs in over a decade. It features collaborations with Tony Allen,

Laurel Halo Laurel Anne Chartow (born June 3, 1985), known professionally as Laurel Halo, is an American electronic musician currently based in Berlin, Germany. She released her debut album ''Quarantine'' on Hyperdub in 2012 to critical acclaim; it was named ...

Weyes Blood Natalie Laura Mering (born June 11, 1988), known professionally as Weyes Blood (pronounced ), is an American singer, songwriter, and musician. She was primarily raised in Doylestown, Pennsylvania. She has been performing her own material under ...

Tei Shi Valerie Teicher Barbosa (born 4 October 1989), best known by her stage name Tei Shi, is a Colombian-Canadian singer, songwriter, and record producer based in New York City. She released her first singles and music videos in 2013, also performing ...

Animal Collective Animal Collective is an American experimental pop band formed in Baltimore, Maryland. Its members consist of Avey Tare (David Portner), Panda Bear (Noah Lennox), Geologist (Brian Weitz), and Deakin (Josh Dibb). The band's work is characterized ...

Avey Tare David Michael Portner (born April 24, 1979), also known by his moniker Avey Tare, is a musician and songwriter who co-founded the American experimental pop band Animal Collective. He has released three solo albums, as well as three collaborative ...

and

Panda Bear The giant panda (''Ailuropoda melanoleuca''), also known as the panda bear (or simply the panda), is a bear species endemic to China. It is characterised by its bold black-and-white coat and rotund body. The name "giant panda" is sometimes use ...

Dev Hynes Devonté Hynes (born David Joseph Michael Hynes, 23 December 1985), also known as Blood Orange and formerly Lightspeed Champion, is an English singer, songwriter, record producer and director based in New York City. From 2004 to 2006, Hynes was ...

Sylvan Esso Sylvan Esso is an American electronic pop duo from Durham, North Carolina, formed in 2013. The band consists of singer Amelia Meath (born July 2, 1988) and producer Nick Sanborn (born March 8, 1983). They made their debut with the single "Hey Mam ...

Actress An actor or actress is a person who portrays a Character (arts), character in a performance. The actor performs "in the flesh" in the traditional medium of the theatre or in modern media such as film, radio, and television. The analogous Greek ...

, and

Fat White Family Fat White Family are an English rock band, formed in 2011 in Peckham, South London. History The band, fronted by Southampton-born and Cookstown-raised Lias Kaci Saoudi, formed in 2011. Lead guitarist Saul Adamczewski was previously the frontman ...

. It was inspired by current events such as Donald Trump's presidency,

Brexit Brexit (; a portmanteau of "British exit") was the withdrawal of the United Kingdom (UK) from the European Union (EU) at 23:00 GMT on 31 January 2020 (00:00 1 February 2020 CET).The UK also left the European Atomic Energy Community (EAEC or ...

COVID-19 Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by a virus, the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The first known case was COVID-19 pandemic in Hubei, identified in Wuhan, China, in December ...

, climate change, civil rights, and right-wing extremism.

Background

Cale has hinted at a new album numerous times over the years following the release of '' M:FANS'' (2016), his previous studio album featuring reworkings of old songs, and ''

Shifty Adventures in Nookie Wood ''Shifty Adventures in Nookie Wood'' is the fifteenth solo studio album by Welsh rock musician John Cale. It was released on 1 October 2012 in Europe and 2 October in North America on the Double Six Records imprint of Domino Records. It was rel ...

'' (2012), his last album with all new songs. When ''M:FANS'' was released in January 2016 Cale said that another new album with new songs would be released by the end of the year. According to a November 2017 interview, the album was set for a 2018 release. In September 2018, Cale said it will be released the following year. The album was subsequently completed before the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...

, but its release was delayed. On 1 August 2022 the first single from the yet-unnamed album, "Night Crawling", was released along with an animated video by Mickey Miles. The second single, "Story of Blood" featuring Weyes Blood, was released on 19 October 2022. The music video, directed by Jethro Waters, was released on the same day along with announcing the album title and track listing. The standard edition of ''Mercy'' contains twelve songs, while the special edition includes a bonus

7" single In music, a single is a type of release, typically a song recording of fewer tracks than an LP record or an album. One can be released for sale to the public in a variety of formats. In most cases, a single is a song that is released separate ...

with two more songs.

Critical reception

''Mercy'' was named the album of the month by ''

Uncut Uncut may refer to: * ''Uncut'' (film), a 1997 Canadian docudrama film by John Greyson about censorship * ''Uncut'' (magazine), a monthly British magazine with a focus on music, which began publishing in May 1997 * '' BET: Uncut'', a Black Enter ...

'' with Tom Pinnock calling it "the most out-there work Cale has made in some time, a hermetically sealed, hallucinogenic journey that's as neon-lit and gothic as its cover art."

Track listing

Personnel

Musicians *

– vocals, string arrangements (all tracks), bass guitar (1, 4–11, 13, 14), drums (1–5, 7–11), piano (1, 2, 4, 7–9, 12, 14), synthesizers (1–3, 8–10), noises (2), vintage keyboards (3, 5, 13, 14),

Swarmatron The Swarmatron is an analogue synthesizer developed by Dewanatron, consisting of cousins Brian and Leon Dewan. Hand-made by the Dewans, it has eight oscillators controlled by a single ribbon controller. The oscillators are linked through a 'swarm' ...

(5), keyboards (6, 8, 11), acoustic guitar (10), guitar (11), additional strings (12); drone, percussion (13) *

– additional vocals, effects, synthesizers (1) *

Matt Fish Matthew Edward Fish (born November 18, 1969) is an American retired professional basketball player who played in the National Basketball Association (NBA) for the Los Angeles Clippers, Denver Nuggets, New York Knicks, Miami Heat and Washington ...

– cello (2–4, 6, 7, 12) * Ian Walker –

double bass The double bass (), also known simply as the bass () (or #Terminology, by other names), is the largest and lowest-pitched Bow (music), bowed (or plucked) string instrument in the modern orchestra, symphony orchestra (excluding unorthodox addit ...

(2–4, 6, 7, 12) *

– synthesizers, effects (2) * Joey Maramba – bass guitar (3, 5),

bowed bass Bowed string instruments are a subcategory of string instruments that are played by a bow rubbing the strings. The bow rubbing the string causes vibration which the instrument emits as sound. Despite the numerous specialist studies devoted to t ...

(4) *

Deantoni Parks Deantoni Parks (born November 2, 1977) is an American new wave/avant-garde/experimental musician. He is the co-founder, co-producer and drummer of the New York band KUDU along with artist Sylvia Black, and one half of the writing duo We Are Dar ...

– acoustic drums (3, 7),

timpani Timpani (; ) or kettledrums (also informally called timps) are musical instruments in the percussion family. A type of drum categorised as a hemispherical drum, they consist of a membrane called a head stretched over a large bowl traditionall ...

(3), additional synthesizers (5),

electronic drum Electronic drums is a modern electronic musical instrument, primarily designed to serve as an alternative to an acoustic drum kit. Electronic drums consist of an electronic sound module which produces the synthesized or sampled percussion sounds ...

s (7), additional drums (8) *

Dustin Boyer Dustin Boyer is an American singer-songwriter and guitarist. He is a longtime collaborator of Welsh musician John Cale. He also collaborated with many other artists, such as Jennifer Love Hewitt, Michelle Branch, Andrew Dorff, and Michael Landau. ...

– guitar (3), bass guitar (4), noises (7), backing vocals (8, 11); rhythm guitar, guitar solo (10); guitar (11) * Caroline Buckman – viola (3, 4, 7) * Leah Katz – viola (3, 4, 7) * Rodney Wirtz – viola (3, 4, 7) *

Eric Gorfain Eric Gorfain is an American violinist and founder of The Section Quartet, a string quartet that plays cover versions of rock songs. He is married to singer-songwriter Sam Phillips, with whom he has toured and recorded. Gorfain studied music at UC ...

– violin (3, 4, 7) * Marissa Kuney – violin (3, 4, 7) * Jenny Takamatsu – violin (3, 4, 7) * Nita Scott – additional drums (4), additional percussion (9); additional drum programming, backing vocals (11) *

– vocals (4) * Nick Sanborn – acoustic guitar (5) *

Amelia Meath Amelia Randall Meath (born July 2, 1988) is an American musician, songwriter, producer, and dancer who is a member of the musical groups Sylvan Esso and Mountain Man. She is based in Durham, North Carolina. Career Mountain Man (2010–presen ...

– vocals (5) * Destani Wolf – backing vocals (6) *

Brian Weitz Brian Ross Weitz (born March 26, 1979), also known by his stage name Geologist, is a musician best known as a member of the experimental pop Experimental pop is pop music that cannot be categorized within traditional musical boundaries or w ...

– synthesizers (7) * Dave Portner – vocals (7) *

Noah Lennox Noah Benjamin Lennox (born July 17, 1978), also known by his moniker Panda Bear, is an American musician, singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and co-founding member of the band Animal Collective. In addition to his work with that group, Len ...

– vocals (7) *

Tokimonsta Jennifer Lee, known professionally as Tokimonsta (stylized as TOKiMONSTA), is an American record producer and DJ based in Los Angeles. She has collaborated with artists such as Anderson .Paak, Earthgang, Isaiah Rashad, Selah Sue, and ZHU. Additio ...

– effects (9) *

– acoustic guitar (10) *

– vocals (10) * Jack Everett – acoustic drums, backing vocals (11) * Adam J. Harmer – guitar, backing vocals (11) * Nathan Saoudi –

Juno Juno commonly refers to: *Juno (mythology), the Roman goddess of marriage and queen of the gods *Juno (film), ''Juno'' (film), 2007 Juno may also refer to: Arts, entertainment and media Fictional characters *Juno, in the film ''Jenny, Juno'' *Ju ...

, backing vocals (11) * Lias Saoudi – vocals (11) * Tony Allen – acoustic drums (14) Technical * John Cale –

production Production may refer to: Economics and business * Production (economics) * Production, the act of manufacturing goods * Production, in the outline of industrial organization, the act of making products (goods and services) * Production as a stati ...

* Nita Scott – production (all tracks), mixing (14) *

Mike Bozzi Mike Bozzi is an American mastering engineer at Bernie Grundman Mastering in Hollywood, Los Angeles, Hollywood, California. He won a Grammy Award for Record of the Year for mastering Donald Glover, Childish Gambino's "This Is America (song), This ...

– mastering * Mikaelin Bluespruce – mixing (1, 3, 4, 11) * Seven Davis Jr – mixing (2, 6, 8, 9, 13) * Tokimonsta – mixing (5) *

Justin Raisen Justin Louis Raisen is an American record producer, songwriter, audio engineer, mixing engineer, and multi-instrumentalist. His production, songwriting, and mixing credits include: Yves Tumor, David Bowie, Kim Gordon, Ariel Pink, Angel Olsen, Sky ...

– mixing (7, 10, 12) * Dustin Boyer – mixing (14),

engineering Engineering is the use of scientific method, scientific principles to design and build machines, structures, and other items, including bridges, tunnels, roads, vehicles, and buildings. The discipline of engineering encompasses a broad rang ...

(all tracks), additional production (8) * Actress – additional production (2) Visuals * Abby Portner – artwork * Rob Carmichael – graphic design

Charts

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Mercy (John Cale Album) 2023 albums John Cale albums Albums produced by John Cale Double Six Records albums