Album Of The Week: John Cale MERCY

John Cale is tasked with talking about his past a lot — understandably so, considering his legacy both with the Velvet Underground and on his own — but he has always been pressed firmly on what’s next. To be an artist, in the timeless sense that Cale is, is to be perpetually unsatisfied, always thinking about how you could do things differently, if not always better. In the past six decades, Cale has been responsible for many masterpieces and some duds. That’s the risk one takes in the hunt for transcendence. Cale is what we could all hope to be at 80: constantly curious, eager to learn, adapt, try new things. MERCY, his first album of original songs in a decade, is a testament to his restless creative spirit.