Arguably, no other artist of his generation has had less trouble keeping up with the times than
John Cale, perhaps because he stubbornly refused to be typical in the 1960s, '70s, and '80s, and he remains so today. The man whose aggressive viola and keyboards were a forceful counterpoint to
Lou Reed and
Sterling Morrison's guitars in
the Velvet Underground is now most comfortable making music steeped in electronics, though his work is too slow and somber to fill the dance floor and too dour and doomstruck for blissfully chilling out.
John Cale has always made beautifully crafted music that was never simple, even when it was accessible, and in a career that's spanned seven decades, his 21st century work sounds fresh because he values sound and expression over any specific generic framework. 2023's
Mercy, which was
Cale's first album of new material in a decade, most closely resembles 1982's
Music for a New Society in its dark, contemplative mood and minimalist structures, though the two LPs don't much resemble each other beyond that.
Music for a New Society was brutalist in its clean, spare lines, while
Mercy allows its melodies to rise from ghostly clouds of keyboards and electronic textures, as
Cale's vocals gracefully meet the melodies while he contemplates a world that's broken on a personal as well as a global scale. He wonders if we can even agree that lives matter on the title cut, wonders if the polar ice caps have rights that protect them in "The Legal Status of Ice," questions the short life of beauty in "Marilyn Monroe's Legs," and tells a friend it's "Not the End of the World" without great confidence that he's accurate.
Cale honors the memory of a onetime friend and collaborator in "Moonstruck (Nico's Song)," which is loving but blunt about the choices that defined her life, and even when he sings of love, "Story of Blood" trades in metaphors that will trouble more people than it will comfort. And yet,
Mercy is an album that's about hope, a hard-won commodity whose absence is often the most powerful reminder of its importance. Amidst the sounds that swirl like the grain in an old movie shot in 16 mm, "Out Your Window" and "Everlasting Days" are articulate pleas for compassion made all the more powerful for the darkness surrounding them.
Cale has brought along some talented guest artists for
Mercy, among them
Weyes Blood,
Animal Collective,
Actress, and
Sylvan Esso, but they've lent their skills in the service of
Cale's vision. The understated urgency of his songs unifies this music and makes the whole more moving and eloquent than the individual tracks. The wonderful paradox of
John Cale's music is that his best albums don't often sound like one another, yet they're all driven by music no one else could create, and his heart, soul, and vision are visible and intact through the dense, free-flowing atmospheres of
Mercy. ~ Mark Deming
![The Ride [LP]](http://prodimage.images-bn.com/pimages/0602547863713_p0_v2_s90x140.jpg "The Ride [LP]")
