There’s something to be said when you can feel a beating heart behind a band’s music. That raw, emotional connection to the material is hard to come by these days, especially in the AI-era of music. Maryland’s own Have Mercy have returned with their most immediate material to date with The Loneliest Place I’ve Ever Been, that is packed with ultra-personal lyrics. “We’ve been waiting so long to show our fans what we’ve been working on. This feels like a new journey has started for our band. There’s no better way to kick start this album than releasing a song like ‘august 17’. It is an incredibly personal song that carries a lot of weight. It’s about loss and the continuing pain felt after someone is gone. It may hurt less over time, but it never stops hurting,” shared Brian Swindle, lead singer/guitarist of Have Mercy. By delving even deeper into stories of loss and trauma, Have Mercy simultaneously crafted their most personal, urgent, and best work to date on The Loneliest Place I’ve Ever Been.

The latest EP from Baltimore rock band, Have Mercy, is their first taste of new music since 2019, which in the middle of a pandemic might as well feel like it’s been eons. In addition, Have Mercy called it quits when the world went to shit in the spring of 2020, only to suddenly return with this reinvigorating self-titled EP that finds them sounding as refreshed as they’ve ever been. The record blasts off on the right foot with the anthemic “I’m Gonna Be Ok,” that sounds larger than life. Frontman Brian Swindle shared, “When we wrote this song, I realized that it summarized my entire life as of late. I met the love of my life and wanted to move forward with her but couldn’t until I took care of my issues. I had to get sober, get my mental health in check and just do better. This song was a reflection of all of that.” By handling the personal issues and coming out on the better side of things, Swindle and his bandmates in Have Mercy may have just made their late career masterpiece.