What does John Cale have that the rest of us don’t—some gene that engenders infinite restlessness, a rapacious mind that is never satisfied? For nearly 60 years, or at least since he was a young Welshman who moved to New York and joined The Velvet Underground, Cale has been reinventing his music with dazzling and inspiring regularity. Once again, here is Cale, reimagining how his music is made, sounds, and even works. His engrossing 12-track MERCY—his first full album of new tunes in a decade—moves through true dark-night-of-the-soul electronic blues toward vulnerable love songs and hopeful considerations for the future with the help of some of music’s most curious young minds. 1. MERCY feat. Laurel Halo 2. MARILYN MONROE'S LEGS (beauty elsewhere) feat. Actress 3. NOISE OF YOU 4. STORY OF BLOOD feat. Weyes Blood 5. TIME STANDS STILL feat. Sylvan Esso 6. MOONSTRUCK (Nico's Song) 7. EVERLASTING DAYS feat. Animal Collective 8. NIGHT CRAWLING 9. NOT THE END OF THE WORLD 10. I KNOW YOU'RE HAPPY feat. Tei Shi 11. THE LEGAL STATUS OF ICE feat. Fat White Family 12. OUT YOUR WINDOW
