The Quality of Mercy (album)

The Quality of Mercy
Studio album by Steve Harley & Cockney Rebel
Released	3 October 2005
Genre	Rock, pop rock
Length	44:45
Label	Gott Discs Pinnacle Records (distribution only)
Producer	Steve Harley Jim Cregan (track 9)
Steve Harley & Cockney Rebel chronology
Anytime! (A Live Set) (2004) The Quality of Mercy (2005) The Cockney Rebel - A Steve Harley Anthology (2006)

The Quality of Mercy is a studio album from English rock band Steve Harley & Cockney Rebel. Led by Steve Harley, the band's line-up consisted of new musicians compared to the last Cockney Rebel album.^[1] The album was released on CD in the UK and Norway only, through Gott Discs, whilst Pinnacle Records handled the album's distribution within the UK.^[2]

The album failed to make the Top 200 in the UK, although it did make an appearance on the Norwegian albums chart, peaking at #40.^[3] A total of two singles were released from the album, with the main one being "The Last Goodbye" which peaked at No. 186 in the UK in early 2006. The other single "A Friend for Life" was released four years earlier in 2001 as a stand-alone release, where it peaked at No. 125 in the UK.^[4] Soon after the album's release, Harley embarked on a UK 30+ date tour to promote the album.^[5]

Never available to download – the album remains only available on CD.^[6]

The album's title is based on the Shakespearean phrase.

Writing and recording

Produced entirely by Harley, except for "A Friend for Life" which was produced by both Harley and ex-Cockney Rebel guitarist Jim Cregan, the album was recorded at Gemini Recording Studios in Ipswich and was mastered by Denis Blackham at Skye Mastering.^[2] During March 2005, Harley's official website revealed that the album was due for a September release, and that the songs were currently being fine-tuned at a studio in Suffolk, and were almost ready for mixing. Both Harley and his regular touring band worked many long days in a Pro-tools studio in Suffolk for a number of weeks. Additionally, it was noted that Manfred Esser would be shooting a cover photo at a session in Cologne, Germany, in April. The cover photograph ended up being taken by Mick Rock.^[7]

In an interview with icLiverpool, a month before the album's release, Harley stated that he had some sudden flashes of inspiration when writing the new album. "Suddenly that inspiration is there and you go for broke – I managed to write seven or eight songs in about a month."^[8] In a Record Collector Interview with Nick Dalton during June 2005, Harley was asked what was new with his music and Harley replied "My first DVD is out and I'm recording The Quality of Mercy. I don't know if it'll ever be like the first Cockney Rebel, when I had a thousand ideas, but I felt like I'm 22 again."^[9]

Noted to have been Harley's most personal album yet, the songs on the album have lyrics which recall the past, as well as looking forward to the future. In the Brighton Argus of 1 October 2005, Harley revealed "In the past, I never exposed myself. I always couched my meaning in metaphor and allegory. But now I've had enough of covering up. So the songs are more explicit. There's blood in these tracks. I like to please people, I don't like rejection. But with this album, I've written it for me. Not to get hit records, please the music company or even the fans, just for me. And I can honestly say I've used everything I've been given. This is what I want people to remember me for. Not just "Make Me Smile."^[5]

On Harley's official website at the time, it was reported that at his "An Audience With....." show in Stamford, Lincolnshire, Harley revealed his own feelings with the way the work has developed. He stated "I am making a record that pleases me - I can only hope it then pleases lots of other people, including the critics. We have a wild drum sound on the rocky tracks and the lyrics are flowing once again. I am very, very excited about this project. The band have looked at me as though I'm mad, when I've put forward certain production ideas, but they've come to accept now that sometimes the safe way is not necessarily the best way forward."^[7]

"Journey's End (A Father's Promise)" was written when Harley's son left home. "The Last Feast" is a candid, eight-verse track which recalls Harley's near-fatal contraction of childhood polio. In the Brighton Argus of 1 October 2005, In the Brighton Argus, Harley commented "I was in Brighton. My mum was in hospital in London giving birth and my sister and I were sent to stay at my gran's in Hangleton Road. I could barely walk. When I returned to London, my dad said, 'Steve isn't right'. It was diagnosed as flu but my dad took me to hospital and I was found to be dying. That's why I sing the line, 'I've been dreaming I'm in paradise.' It's cathartic to sing about it."^[5] "The Last Feast" had been initially released in 2002 as a live version on Harley's live acoustic album Acoustic and Pure: Live, and with another live version appearing on the 2004 album Anytime! (A Live Set). Both "A Friend For Life" and "Saturday Night at the Fair were also familiar with concert-going fans before the album's release.

In an October 2008 interview on songwriting and poetry, Harley spoke of the structure of "The Coast of Amalfi", saying: "I have written several songs with no middle-eight, no discernable bridge, and even no chorus, per se. Try 'The Coast Of Amalfi' on my most recent CD. Narrative can be more interesting to a listener, but the story must hold their attention if no chorus appears for them to hum along to."^[10]

Later in 2008, Hans Peter Janssens, a Belgian musical actor, recorded a cover of Harley's 1973 Cockney Rebel song "Sebastian" in Italian after Harley gave him permission to do the song in a new arrangement. It was produced by Bjorn Dobbelaere, and was released as a single in March 2008.^[11] Following on from this song, Jannsens would perform another of Harley's songs in Italian, "The Coast Of Amalfi" ("La Costa Di Amalfi"). However this time Janssens' version featured Harley as a duet, with Janssens singing in Italian, over Harley's English-language "shadow vocal".^[12]

Track listing

Critical reception

Professional ratings
Review scores
Source	Rating
Allmusic	Unrated[13]
Record Collector	[14]
The Sunday Express	[15]
Q Magazine	[16][17]
Classic Rock magazine	[18]
Uncut Magazine	[19]
Birmingham 101 Gig Guide	favourable[20]
Cross Rhythms	[21]
RO (Norwegian)	favourable[22]
Rocktimes (German)	favourable[23]

Critically the album was well received by both critics and fans.^{[6][24][25][26]} Billy Sloan of Radio Clyde described it as "a very impressive CD from the mighty Steve Harley". Drew McAdam, a music journalist, had complimented the album as "a winner - just may be the best thing he's ever done... the beauty and vibrant electricity of this album."^[7]

Record Collector reviewer Nick Dalton positively reviewed the album and stated "Steve Harley's first Cockney Rebel album in 26 years may owe more to his softer, recent solo work than the arty scratch and scream of his original band, but it's sublime. Harley proves he's lost none of his word power, nor indeed his knack with a good tune, with songs like the moody, swirling "The Coast of Amalfi" or the introspective seven-minute guitar blast of "The Last Feast". The band – an expanded version of the line-up on his recent amped-up acoustic live set "Anytime!" – stretches out of the confines of simple rock instrumentation with sawing violin and classical piano, while Jim Cregan, guitarist during the "Make Me Smile" heyday, adds a delicate solo on the reflective "A Friend for Life," one of three tracks he's co-written. At times you're taken back to the early days, although the album reflects on past glories rather than setting out to recreate them. It's a mature piece of work, yet not without an engaging edginess and irrepressible enthusiasm."^[14]

The Sunday Express reviewed the album on 9 October 2005 and stated "A genuine Seventies pop maverick – who once shared a stage with Peter Gabriel and Kate Bush – Harley has evolved into a highly-literate and intimate balladeer. "The Coast of Amalfi," and "A Friend for Life" are elegant if care-worn gems."^[15]

In the November 2005 issue of Q Magazine, writer John Aizelwood reviewed the album with the sub-title heading "First album since 2000 from former Steven Nice." The review stated "To the delight of Steve Harley's bank manager, his back catalogue will always feature "Make Me Smile (Come Up and See Me). To the delight of his fan base, his occasional new albums disappoint nobody. On "Journey's End (A Father's Promise)," he takes what might have been mawkish father-son tosh and makes it moving and if "The Coast of Amalfi" is lyrically stuck in the '70s, its gorgeous melody is timeless. The centrepiece is the eight autobiographical minutes of "The Last Feast," where Harley tells us, apropos of nothing, "I've been to Athens and I've been to Seville"."^[16]

In November 2005, Carol Clerk of Classic Rock magazine reviewed the album, with the sub-title heading "Songs of quality and confession." The review stated "Baring his soul in public for the first time, Steve Harley has produced what might just be his best album to date. "The Quality of Mercy" is brimful of songs that are intensely personal and sometimes harrowing but, musically, very approachable. Here, Harley surveys his reality as a middle-aged father hoping his 25-year marriage will survive the empty-nest crisis. Still, the bright up-tempos of "The Last Goodbye" and the lovely, gentle melodies that carry "Journey's End (A Father's Promise)" and "A Friend for Life" offset the deep anxieties at the heart of the lyrics. In other places, Harley picks over the past, coming down heavy with angry electric guitars in "The Last Feast" as he confronts the childhood polio that led to his disability."^[18]

In a negative review of the album from Nick Hasted of Uncut magazine in the November 2005 issue, Hasted wrote "The acerbic swagger of Harley's real Rebel years is absent on this set with his rechristened road band. Though "Saturday Night at the Fair"'s couple contemplate acting "devil-may-care" to glam guitar, Harley's concerns now are adult: fathers and sons, nostalgia and ennui, presented with the self-importance of an adolescent, minus the energy. "A Friend for Life" retains some brutal Cockney bite about married stasis, and "The Coast of Amalfi"'s dope reverie is artful. Otherwise, ignore."^[19]

Steve Best of Cross Rhythms wrote "From late 2005 comes this latest offering from one of the UK's most enduring and indeed endearing songsmiths, still sounding great after over 30 years on the road, and rated by Rod Stewart as "one of the finest lyricists the UK has ever produced". This is intriguingly the first time Harley has used the name of his hit band in 26 years, but it comes to mark the 30th anniversary of the evergreen "Make Me Smile (Come Up and See Me)" which recently got a re-release. Musically this record references much of Harley's past glories. It is beautifully written and performed with a very British folk-pop sound – some nice violin on "Journey's End (A Father's Promise)" and "No Rain on This Parade" on which Harley's voice really harks back to earlier times, and the jaunty "When the Halo Slips". The only track that doesn't really seem to fit is the lengthy power ballad "The Last Feast" but this is really only a minor quibble, as this is a fine piece of work."^[21]

In a review from Birmingham 101 Gig Guide, the reviewer stated "Harley's in fine voice, at times sounding not unlike a cross between Sting, Gerry Rafferty and (on the superb "The Coast of Amalfi") Chris De Burgh, and this is easily the best thing he's done in years. Co-penned by ex Rebel Jim Cregan, opening track "The Last Goodbye" shows his ability to pen classic, radio friendly quality pop hasn't dimmed with the years, a fact ably reiterated by the chorus friendly tumbling folksy "Saturday Night at the Fair" and the 60s sounding "No Rain on This Parade". But if the uptempo material shines, the slower songs positively glow. A father's hymn of love to their child, "Journey's End (A Father's Promise)" mines a seam of Celtic folk influence, the God searching "Save Me (From My Self)" with its keening pedal steel and the closing plea for enduring love "A Friend For Life" are all stand-outs, but the centerpiece surely has to be "The Last Feast", a seven minute throaty slow blues-rock burner that (referencing Phantom of the Opera) again finds Harley confronting God as he addresses the fear of mortality. Giving it the full works after a spate of solo acoustic dates, no doubt fan demands will mean much of the set focus is on past favourites (hopefully "Sebastian" included), but there's material here that will stand the test of time just as strongly."^[20]

Rune Westengen of the Norwegian site RB, reviewed the album upon its release, stating "He broke through with Cockney Rebel in the mid-70's and has worked steadily with lyrics and music. It is now nearly ten years since the last album, so it might just as expected because here he presents a very varied and elaborate handful songs. The album is primarily characterised by strong melodies, like the fine, melancholy ballad "Journey's End" and the more rocking, Costello-like "The Last Goodbye". A plate which is growing quite spectacular, with several melodies that stick in the brain. Harley is in fine form on vocals, and arrangements are tight and powerful. At the age of 56 he is probably more influenced by the Deputy club its background than he has been in previous releases."^[22]

German site Rocktimes published a review of Harley's 2010 studio album Stranger Comes to Town which was written from Michael 'Mike' Schröder. The review mentioned The Quality of Mercy album, stating "With Cockney Rebel, in 2005 he took his most recent album "The Quality of Mercy" which I lay to everybody with pleasure in the heart. Soulful put forward and emotional songs that seek their equal. Now, five years later, there is his latest work "Stranger Comes To Town"."^[23]

Chart performance

Album

Singles

A Friend for Life

The Last Goodbye

Personnel

• Vocals, Guitar – Steve Harley
• Electric Guitar, Acoustic Guitar, Backing Vocals – Robbie Gladwell
• Acoustic Guitar, Violin, Backing Vocals – Barry Wickens
• Keyboards – James Lascelles
• Bass – Lincoln Anderson
• Drums – Adam Houghton

Additional musicians

• Piano on "Journey's End (A Father's Promise)" – Kerr Nice
• Pedal Steel on "Save Me (From Myself)" – Tony Ryan
• String Quartet Arrangement on "A Friend for Life" – Mike Batt
• Guitar Solo on "A Friend for Life" – Jim Cregan

Production

• Producer – Steve Harley
• Producer – Jim Cregan (track 9)
• Recording Engineer – Pat Grueber
• Engineers on "A Friend for Life" – Matt Butler, Steve Sale
• Remix Engineer – Matt Butler
• Mastering – Denis Blackham

Other

• Representation – Asgard
• Cover Photo – Mick Rock
• Sleeve Design – Mark Scarfe at Aarlsen

References