CRY FOR MERCY – ‘THIS MACHINE’

MARCH ALBUM OF THE MONTH

(5/5)

This album review doesn’t need to be a long one. Party because there’s a 60-minute GMS audio interview going up in the next few days that tells the album story better. But also because the verdict on ‘This Machine’ is simple: By a distance, it’s the best album Cry For Mercy have done – and in terms of charm, conviction and chemistry, it’s one of the best UK blues-rock albums of 2025 so far.

I listened to the album earlier today. I ended up playing it three times back-to-back, the music really pulled me in. Also I didn’t read the PR blurb, nor I was particularly interested in what the track names were. This was one those relatively rare occasions when it was all about the album as a body of work, a cohesive listening experience that maintained my interest from start to finish. No filler tracks, in fact an album I didn’t want to end.

And I say all this not as a band super-fan or member of any new rock tribe. Cry for Mercy is a band that, objectively and equitably, had their kick of the ball on my rock show over a number of years; they appeared on Modern Rock, and they were also a band of The Month. Listeners liked them, so we often found room for them, which is the way my rock show rolled. From a personal perspective, their past albums were good but they didn’t blow me away. Some great songs, but as albums I sometimes found them to be a bit too thumpy and hard-edged. Others will disagree and that’s fine.

I say this not as criticism but to provide context for my first listen of ‘This Machine.’ When the new Cry for Mercy album arrived, I thought I knew what to expect. I was wrong. The first listen was emphatic. A big step up for the band, a listening experience that proved to be an absolute delight. The opening three or four songs where immediately absorbing and exciting. It hit a high-mark early on and it just grew from there as a joined-up listener experience. A few surprises, a few nice twists and turns; Fully engaging – a superb album.

I’m not going to do a track-by-track for this review. I enjoyed this as an album, in the full sense of the word – as a 50-minute musical journey, an enriching experience that maintains your full sensory attention – a bit like a good film, where you don’t feel the need to take coffee breaks, stare at your phone, get the knitting out or read the credits on the Blu-ray case. I listened to ‘This Machine’ three times – and I didn’t even care what the songs were called, the notes on where it was recorded or the band’s musical inspirations. This review is more about how a body of music can make you feel – and why this one stood out from the dozens of other discs that also had a spin in recent weeks.

Freedom. This album captures an utterly truthful and unfiltered audio snapshot of a band enjoying what they’re doing, making the music they want to make – the way they want to do it and on their terms. But there’s also a feeling of fun. There is a chemistry – a unity or cohesion even – to the playing that is so convincing in it’s simple truth. And it’s expressed with a sense of positivity and joy. Too often nowadays, I listen to new rock albums where it feels like the managers, marketeers, labels, producers are having too big a say in how the band should be styled – and when this happens something dies in the music (even if it proves to be more successful, albeit success defined in data / marketing not critical, artistic terms).

What we have with this Cry for Mercy album is a band pushing themselves to make the music they want to make – and that freedom of passion is the cement that holds the bricks together.

The result is great and in its simple truth; it’s three blokes playing the blues rock they love but it’s also the sound of what rock should be – complete by being unpolished, rebellious in its direct truth and perfect (actually) in its human imperfection.

Back to Humans: Another apt phrase and a song title that also, for me, resonates with this fine album. In past interviews Kevin from the band has talked to me about Queen’s music, and his journey through their whole album catalogue during lockdown. During our past chats, Kevin has talked about Queen 2 and also Hot Space – but it is a track from The Works that resonates with me here – a song from 1984 that explored the interplay of the human and the machine – ‘Machines or Back to Humans’. Forward wind to 2025, and the AI world is referenced in this album. It also gets a nod on the album cover – and there’s an essence that washes through the whole feel of the album. We live in an age of auto-tune, of pitch-correct and soon AI will deliver the songs people want to hear and the AR / VR and VFX concerts where they can have fun. Kevin and I cover this off in our new, forthcoming audio interview, but what this album presents us with is the beauty of human creation. The human writing, the three-piece jamming in the studio, the album cover painted by a band member. It’s music that may not be ‘in’ enough to make the algorithms and playlists that choose for us the music we think we like – but it doesn’t matter. Hands down the human-made, played and designed album is better. And we need more rock albums like this. Rock, after all, is supposed to be about being individual, being an outsider and stickin’ it to the man. As the machine world is poised to change the face music, Cry for Mercy take us back to humans. And they won’t go quietly into the night …

Another big plus for ‘This Machine’- Cry For Mercy spend time to really explore the blues side of their oeuvre. They’ve always been blues rock but there’s a greater bandwidth or colour palette to this new release thanks to a strong blues focus which, in part, is why I find it to be a step up on their previous albums. There’s heavy stuff for sure, but the blues allows for greater variety in the pace of the songs, it allows more space for Kevin’s vocals and the backing vocals to really shine, and it just gives the album more of a soul. I guess because the blues is more about the feeling behind the music. I even sense a hint of Americana making a few subtle cameos on ‘This Machine’- maybe more in the storytelling qualities of the album.

In terms of the playing on the album, the balance between guitar, bass and drums is great – and, for me, the dynamic between the musicians was what made the soundscapes feel so immersive and enjoyable. There are also some sumptuous guitar solos through the album. But again, the band hasn’t been told by a producer what would be good or a cool thing to do. They’ve done what they want to do, the solos fit the songs; they’re not predictable solos and they add something to the songs rather than filling gaps between verse and chorus.

If you imagine Paul Rodgers, Led Zep, Deep Purple, and Chris Stapleton having an inpromptu jam – possibly also with matron on the keys – and then add in some of the intelligent atmospheres from early Rush and some of the melodies from early Queen – and you have the wonderful musical fruit salad of (mostly) British rock influences that deliver the kind of rounded soundscape you head on ‘This Machine.’ Cry for Mercy are very much a classic blues-rock band, but it’s the way they do things – and on their own terms – that makes them interesting.

On merit, the music from this album should make Cry For Mercy regulars at summer festivals this year. Their new music deserves to be heard, but we all know that’s not how it really works. It’s a shame though, because the music on this fine album would do a great deal to win over the masses that think rock is dead – and prove to them how wrong they are.

Every now and then there are albums where the simple and direct truth in the music cuts through the noise and the hype machine – albums where the music can stand tall and have something to say. ‘This Machine’ speaks for the enduring power of human artistic endeavour in a music world where judgement is too often based on chasing the likes, working to formulas and letting the machines create artificial – but soulless – perfection. And that’s why this band – and what they do – matters.

This Machine is released on 4 April.

Do catch my new 60-minute audio interview with Cry For Mercy on the making of their new album, going up on this site in the next 48 hours.

Band links and album order details from:
www.cryformercy.co.uk
www.facebook.com/cryformercyofficial
www.x.com/cryformercy3
www.instagram.com/cryformercyofficial
www.cryformercy3.bandcamp.com

This Machine – Track Listing

1. A Thing About Me
2. Show Me
3. Walking With The Enemy
4. All My Life
5. Let Me Be
6. Nothing At All
7. Moments
8. Saving Grace
9. I Don’t Mind
10. Sometimes
11. You Can’t Help Me
12. This Time