Mercy Music Amps Up the Pop-Punk Summertime Heartbreak with What You Stand To Lose
Photo by Corlene Machine
Written by Eli Nava
The Las Vegas-based pop-punk trio, Mercy Music, is bringing the energy with the release of their album What You Stand To Lose. The trio is composed of Brendan Scholz (vocals, guitar), Jarred Cooper (bass), and Rye Martin (drums). Produced by Bill Steveson, who has worked with artists such as Black Flag and Descendants, What You Stand To Lose is a shift for the band and explores heartbreak and loss.
Their single, “Suddenly,” starts the album off with a bang and introduces the theme that strings through the album, which is the mental and physical pain of heartbreak. With high-voltage guitar solos and fast basslines, joined by Scholz’s powerful vocals, the single is best for letting out pent-up angst and jumping around in classic punk fashion. The second single, “Love You/Need You,” follows a similar rubric, and the lyrics discuss the difficulties of being emotionally vulnerable after being hurt.
As the album progresses, songs like “REAL” and “Believe In We” follow a similar pattern and create a cohesive listening experience for What You Stand To Lose. Scholz delivers a vulnerable look into the difficulties of coping with a broken heart and gets personal about his struggles as the album keeps building. “Fine” stands out in the lineup with its switch in tempo and deep bass contrasted by high-pitched guitar riffs. This song also deviates from the other tracks, marking the shift in its thematic approach to one that tries to soothe the heartache—whether sincere or trying its best to be sincere—becoming a pop-punk reminder that everything will be just “fine.”
“Found Out I’m Useless” is the most sonically dynamic track off the album, and the false endings add to the listening experience by pausing before coming right back in with gritty guitar and heavy bass–all tied together by Scholz’s raw vocal performance. The album comes to an end with “Waiting to Begin,” a haunting track that takes a step back from the album’s main pop-punk approach and into folk-punk territory with simple acoustic guitar and piano. Ultimately, What You Stand To Lose proves to be a cohesive, vulnerable, and easy-to-digest album that is made for ruminating on that summertime heartbreak.
