The Mooney Suzuki - Have Mercy

There always seemed to be a bit too much hype around NYC’s Mooney Suzuki. After all, they merely aped their rock and roll heroes, just like a million other bands did. But the Mooney’s did it with such gusto; they jumped around the stage and writhed around with such enthusiasm that they actually made you believe that you were hearing something exciting. It was easy to forgive them for their retro-rock and roll posturing---they made straight ahead sloppy garage rock and they seemed to be having a damned good time doing it. But what once seemed like a straight forward band that found success by simply doing what they did---and by putting on great shows---now sounds like a band struggling to find a raison d’etre. Have Mercy, the Mooney’s fourth LP, is a record that seems to confirm their downward slide. Instead of sticking with bands that so obviously inspired their earlier efforts like the The Stones, The Kinks, or The Stooges, the Mooney Suzuki is now mining the memes of ‘70’s rock; resorting to sing-a-long “na, na, na, na’s” on “99%” and using fuzzed-out guitars and a Hammond organ on “This Broke Heart of Mine” and on the staggeringly idiotic “Good Ol’ Alcohol”. From beginning to end, “Have Mercy” is so misguided it almost makes you wonder if they were trying to make a bad record on purpose. The packaging even boasts that the New York Times called them “Loud, boring and utterly charmless.” If that was the goal: mission accomplished. [www.themooneysuzuki.com ]