John Cale unveils “NOISE OF YOU,” the new single/video off his first new album in a decade, MERCY, out January 20th on Double Six / Domino. “NOISE OF YOU” follows last year’s “shimmering” (Rolling Stone) single “NIGHT CRAWLING,” and “STORY OF BLOOD,” Cale’s “haunting” and “otherworldly” (The New York Times) collaboration with Weyes Blood. Sensual and svelte, “NOISE OF YOU” looks to be uplifted by our most ordinary but transcendent mechanism – love – as Cale croons about waiting to hear a paramour’s footfalls on the stairs during an idyllic winter. The accompanying video, directed by Pepi Ginsberg, was filmed around New York City, capturing projected images of Cale across spaces meaningful to his storied career.
Of the track, Cale says: “I don’t tend to romanticize the idea of love. It represents ‘need’ and that’s not something I’m particularly comfortable with. When it gets ahold of you though - don’t let go - no matter how many times you mess it up!”
Of the video, Ginsberg adds: “I was so inspired by John’s relationship to process and collaboration and wanted to mirror his approach to art in this video for ‘NOISE OF YOU,’ which John describes as a love song. Setting out to make a ‘moving’ portrait of John, we have mapped images and video of John’s life over his former home of New York City, creating a conversation between past and present, reflecting the way that distant, and sometimes dissonant, voices can reach across divides of space and time to speak their own language of love.”
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 inspiring regularity. 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. Once again, here is Cale, reimagining how his music is made, sounds, and even works. The engrossing, 12-track MERCY is the continuation of a long career’s work with wonder. MERCY moves through true dark-night-of-the-soul electronics toward vulnerable love songs and hopeful considerations for the future.
The writings and recordings that shaped MERCY piled up for years, as Cale watched society totter at the brink of dystopia. Trump and Brexit, Covid and climate change, civil rights and right-wing extremism—Cale let the bad news of the day filter into his lines, whether that meant contemplating the sovereignty and legal status of sea ice melting near the poles or the unhinged arming of Americans. As Cale considered these songs, he could hear other voices joining him, soon enlisting Laurel Halo, Sylvan Esso, Animal Collective, Actress and the aforementioned Weyes Blood, plus other brilliant musicians who climb inside Cale’s consummate vision of the world and help him redecorate there.
Cale turns 81 in March, and he’s watched as many peers and pals have passed away, particularly during the last decade. MERCY suggests a transformative way of existence, where one’s own age or the world’s malaises don’t preclude imagination, intrigue, or the perennial quest to heal. It comes back to get us. If it’s MERCY John Cale wants, he’s created it not only through these 12 songs but through a lifetime of perpetual self-renewal.
MERCY will be available on 2xLP, CD, and digitally. The Domino Mart transparent blue vinyl 2xLP edition includes a 16pg booklet, a 7" featuring 2 exclusive tracks, including an alternate version of "Mercy" featuring drummer Tony Allen. Preorder MERCY: Domino Mart | Digital
John Cale Tour Dates - rescheduled
Mon 6th Feb - Liverpool, UK @ Philharmonic Hall
Wed 8th Feb - London, UK @ The Palladium
Fri 10th Feb - Bexhill-On-The-Sea, UK @ De La Warr Pavilion
Sat 11th Feb - Birmingham, UK @ Town Hall
Sun 12th Feb - Cambridge, UK @ Corn Exchange
