Review of Mercy – Rocco DeLuca & The Burden’s New Album!

Rocco DeLuca & the Burden’s second album, Mercy, for Ironworks Records/Universal Republic dropped today. And it dropped like a ton of golden bricks, wrapped up in silk stockings.

Produced by Daniel Lanois (who produced another of March’s releases, entitled No Line On The Horizon by a band called U2), Mercy is forty-eight minutes of haunting rock and roll. DeLuca uses his voice to effect in spoken word, and in an airy falsetto when the lyrics call for it to be so, and also, simply sings outright. He plays a Gibson Dobro- a guitar which resonates a feeling of stomping in an old-school honkey-tonk. Oftentimes, his hands move across it with such sexy ferociousness that I wonder if this was the craftmans’ initial intent when producing such instrument…

The album meanders through ethereal key changes and holds attention with its imaginative production. In one moment, the music waltzes as though it could provide the soundtrack to a Tim Burton film in the track “Junky Valentine.” Title track “Mercy” is a divine journey, with Keane serving as the appropriately textured backing band. My album favorite is “Nightingale,” a track that progresses along as a lyrical next step forward from what was especially good on the last album. “I Trust You To Kill Me” (though the title of DeLuca’s prior album, was not included in its tracklisting) is finally present, and was subconsciously waiting for some minor DeLuca/Lanois tweaking for it to find new life on the new release. Hell, there’s even a tune you can add to your next playlist for working out: “Save Yourself” whose music video was featured in the DVD for 24: Redemption.

DeLuca was the first artist signed to Kiefer Sutherland and Jude Cole’s independent record label Ironworks Records,  which released his debut I Trust You To Kill Me in 2006. In addition to the name of the debut album, and the name of the second track on this new album, I Trust You To Kill Me is also the name of the documentary you may have caught during its multiple plays on VH1 (or else definitely add the film to your Netflix queue) in which DeLuca and the band embark on tour dates in Europe, with Sutherland acting as their tour manager and key promoter. The blessing and curse of a fly-on-the-wall documentary lies in seeing what you want to see… and also seeing what you wish you hadn’t. This film is both partially brilliant and partially nauseating in that sense.

Luckily for DeLuca, the cream generally rises to the top, in a mixture of talent, timing, hard work and luck.  This album is beautifully put together from beginning to end and an effort that truly deserves recognition.

 Main photo credit: Daniel Lanois