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It’s been a long road, but Baltimore’s Have Mercy know how to keep it life-affirming. Threading the needle of making deeply confessional music without making a voyeur of the listener, they have honed a fully realised, grown-up brand of emo across five albums and numerous DIY tours of the States.
Their debut album The Earth Pushed Back, was released by Topshelf Records all the way back in May 2013. The album was well received by critics and fans alike, and in 2014, Have Mercy signed with vaunted indie Hopeless Records, which released their second LP, Place of Our Own, later that year. Working with producers Paul Leavitt (All Time Low) and Brian McTernan (Thrice), Swindle and a rotating crew recorded the band’s Hopeless follow-up, Make the Best of It, which was released in early 2017. Have Mercy returned with The Love Life in 2019, which charted Swindle’s tumultuous personal life over the previous three years.
In 2023 they released the stunning NUMB, which as frontman Brian Swindle puts it was “influenced by my sobriety, new marriage, and repairing/disconnecting from relationships with people”. It’s the sound of a band with two feet firmly on the ground, perfectly braced for some very big feelings indeed.