Mercy Me is softer than a particularly feathery pillow that has been made from the down of marshmallow-fed ducks.
This second single from the Chicago threesome's album Crimson is almost unbearably catchy, and a cause for reiterating that old lament: why has a perfectly competent pop-punk band gone cold-turkey on the gritty edge and dosed up on profitable gloss?
Matt Skiba's voice sounds processed and reedier than usual, the driving guitar chords sound poppy enough for Busted or McFly, and the chorus feels limp when compared to the self-destructive Trio aesthetic of old.
A vague death reference pops up once - "I used to long for a casket to call my own" - but otherwise the tension between the dark lyrics and the pop-tinted underground punk has been lost to commercial pressures.
Released November 21, 2005.
Mark Horne
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