Album Review- Cody Jinks- Mercy (2021)

I have heard Cody Jinks described as the biggest independent musician on the planet. Now, I don’t quite now what that discussion looks like, or where it starts or ends, but it seems that he is in that conversation. Which is amazing given he has a booming voice and a head for country lyrics that he hasn’t made a clearer path for himself. But here he is, trailblazing his path until signing with Rounder Records to release Lifers, as realized as an album as one could reasonably expect. Going back to independently produced and distributed route, he released two albums in 2019. Now, two albums in two weeks is the kind of thing that trips up even the Bruce Springsteens and Princes. As a critic, I would have suggested less is more but who am I to criticize (and there were some strong songs in that mix). In 2021, Jinks didn’t slow down. He recorded an acoustic version of his 2015 Adobe Sessions album and in November, new music in the Mercy album. Mercy kind of cements that previous feeling of cutting the disc down to a smaller set of songs. It at least sounds that way. Jinks’s background is metal, and his voice seems like an affectation at times- a swaggering figure that is as much Toby Keith bravado as it is Merle Haggard attitude. But can just as easily criticize Hank Williams for playing up his image. Songs like Like a Hurricane (not the Neil Young song), Hurt You and All it Cost Me was Everything are stompers. The irony of Jinks is that you hear the slower numbers (it applies to the fast ones too) like Dying Ain’t Cheap and like Steve Earle’s first two records, you can’t say where there is any difference in them and 90s radio country. Just the Rehnquist “ I know it when I see it”, there’s something magical about Jinks. Unlike the group you would call his peers, Jinks doesn’t try to sound like Merle or Waylon. He fully embraces what I would call the Mike Ness side of Country. Like Hank 3, Cody would just as soon play metal. I suppose that’s an aesthetic that comes through. But Mercy doesn’t sound like an artist who has walked away from the industry and is doing things on his own to diminishing returns (think Glenn Danzig recently), he’s just putting out Nashville quality product without anyone telling him what to do. Jinks is surely headed into the conversation of the best in Outlaw Country. He already has a strong enough catalog to prove it and enough potential that it doesn’t look like he will stop soon, which makes Mercy a hard album to categorize. For me, it’s a worthwhile addition that does what it’s supposed to do. It adds a few songs to anybody wanting to make a best of compilation. It does likely benefit from a shorter run time. But I have seen negative reviews which argue the production isn’t that good or that is trying to be too much like Radio Country. I generally disagree (the title track does seem like evidence for the latter, though). I won’t argue it’s a perfect record or even his best, but it’s a winner and another milepost for one of the more interesting musicians today.