For nearly 60 years, John Cale has been reimagining how his music is made, sounds, and even works. “Mercy”, Cale’s first full album in a decade, moves through true dark-night-of-the-soul electronic torment toward vulnerable love songs and hopeful considerations for the future with the help of some of music’s most curious young minds. Cale has always searched for new ways to explore old ideas of alienation, hurt, and joy; “Mercy” is the latest transfixing find of this unsatisfied mind.
On “Mercy“, his forthcoming studio album, John Cale has once again opened himself up to collaborate with younger indie artists, which this time around includes members of Animal Collective, Weyes Blood and Laurel Halo. Their efforts only make the latest single from this LP, “Noise of You,” stand out even more as the song is mainly Cale, on his own, laying his emotions bare for an unnamed lover. The billowing psych-synth backdrop feels like the fog surrounding Cale’s memories through which he tries to reach out for some solid details or moments to hold tightly to. What he finds is something equally as ephemeral and hard to grasp: the sounds that this person made padding across the floor or doing everyday things on the other side of the house or the timbre of their voice as they said farewell.
John Cale – “Noise Of You” from the forthcoming album ‘Mercy’ out 20th Jan 2023 on Double Six / Domino Recordings
The Fat Angel Sings 