Mercy [Translucent Violet Vinyl]

John Cale announces MERCY, his first new album of original songs in a decade, out January 20th via Double Six / Domino, and presents a new single/video, “STORY OF BLOOD feat. Weyes Blood.” For nearly 60 years, or at least since he was a young Welshman who moved to New York and formed The Velvet Underground, Cale has been reinventing his music with dazzling and inspiring regularity. There was the bewitching chamber folk of Paris 1919 followed instantly by the gnarled rock of Fear, the provocative and spare song cycle Music for a New Society followed more than 30 years later by mighty and unabashed electronic updates. Once again, here is Cale, reimagining how his music is made, sounds, and even works. His engrossing 12-track MERCY moves through true dark-night-of-the-soul electronics toward vulnerable love songs and hopeful considerations for the future.

On MERCY, Cale enlists some of music’s most curious young minds: Animal Collective, Sylvan Esso, Laurel Halo, Tei Shi, Actress. They’re only some of the astounding cast who climb inside Cale’s consummate vision of the world and help him redecorate there. As Cale turned 80 in March, MERCY is the continuation of a long career’s work with wonder. 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. 

LP Tracklisting

MERCY feat. Laurel Halo
MARILYN MONROE'S LEGS (beauty elsewhere) feat. Actress
NOISE OF YOU
STORY OF BLOOD feat. Weyes Blood
TIME STANDS STILL feat. Sylvan Esso
MOONSTRUCK (Nico's Song)
EVERLASTING DAYS feat. Animal Collective
NIGHT CRAWLING
NOT THE END OF THE WORLD
I KNOW YOU'RE HAPPY feat. Tei Shi
THE LEGAL STATUS OF ICE feat. Fat White Family
OUT YOUR WINDOW