Album Reviews

Things weren’t looking too good for Have Mercy last year when three quarters of the band threw in the towel, leaving guitarist/vocalist Brian Swindle behind as the Baltimore outfit’s sole member. But like the album title suggests, he’s making the best of it. Unfortunately, that’s not quite good enough.

With a mix of emo and alt-rock, Swindle fires on all cylinders as soon as opening track “Smoke And Lace” kicks in. His vocals are gritty and filled with melancholy, the rhythm section is proficient and guitars waver all over the place. Nice start. But then you hear songs like “Coexist” and “Reaper” and realize that it becomes harder and harder to tell one track apart from the next. Well, there is the previously released single “Good Christian Man”, but that one mostly feels awkward and sounds just a tad bit too much like it wants to be on a Thrice album.

“Make The Best Of It” has all the ingredients I look for on a good album, but somehow the end result doesn’t do anything for me. Hopefully the next album will be better, so we can swipe this one under the rug and blame it on the fact that they were going through a rough patch.

Track listing:

1. Smoke And Lace
2. Drive
3. Coexist
4. Baby Grand
5. Begging For Bones
6. Reaper
7. Ghost
8. Disagree
9. American Bliss
10. Good Christian Man
11. You Made Me