4 out of 5

Label: Expert Work Records

Produced by: Carl Saff (mastered by)

There’s a lot of music I don’t like that, y’know, I acknowledge. It’s not for me, but I acknowledge that it’s for someone else. When there have been bigger trends of acknowledgment required – like, an entire movement of some style I don’t get, or a longrunning star whose continual shine takes me surprise – I’ll try to dig a little deeper, and understand (in my assholey way) what’s keeping that trend / star / etc. relevant.

Hey Mercedes were / have been ones of those groups I haven’t quite been able to puzzle out, until I start stepping backwards in their discography, and then I feel like the connections open up to me a bit more. Of the emo scene, their sound was always so milquetoast to me – no real standout elements – that I kind of just chalked up to right place, right time, and while I don’t think that’s not part of it, I can hear where they hit above average in several departments – lyrically; more complex compositions – more consistently than their peers, and then as a I stepped back further to Braid, I could better appreciate the edges in their sound, and the general passion they brought to the game. They’re still not for me, but I’m comfortable acknowledging them. Whew!

Stepping back from Braid to Orwell – via Bob Nanna, undoubtedly a strong thread through these bands – and, wow, I’m reminded how awesome Hubcap was, and how I’m (almost) always sad when these folks grow up and stop screaming. But I started with the lead-in above because Orwell is so clearly a thread to Braid and beyond – some of the unreleased material here could’ve appeared on albums from either band – that I’m yet again shaken up in my “tastes,” and having to accept that there’s sometimes just the finest line between what you like and what you don’t. Orwell definitely leans way more into punk and hardcore than those acts, but the dense lyricism is here; the tendency towards complex but poppy interplay; and even if there are more shouts overall, Nanna’s impassioned singing style was already intact. This doesn’t make me a Hey Mercedes fan (and in reverse, liking Hey Mercedes doesn’t guarantee your Orwell fandom), but I’m roundabout moving past acknowledgment to marveling at how talented this whole crew was X years ago, in their 20s, and what was I doing in my 20s…?

Anyhow, the rating here is reflective of a few things: yes, the music, but also the sheer quality of this production, bringing together all the material from a band who essentially never had a release – just songs on comps – and unreleased stuff lying around. Plus: if you check out the digital, demos of nearly everything (instrumental, in case you’re not a fan of emo vocals!) and some live cuts. Plus plus: Expert Works’ amazing packaging with an amazing, thick booklet of liner notes and lyrics… It’s a really appreciated collection; one to admire even if you don’t like the music.

Regarding which: while I’ve essentially covered the gist of the sound, I will say that the actually recorded material (the LP’s A-side) is the strongest; a nice mix of screamo punk and some more aggressive emo. Even the 2020 rerecorded vocals by Nannaon Ph9 Green sound perfect against the 25 years older material, surely thanks in part to Carl Saff’s mastering – weighty throughout – and Greg Norman’s transfer of the materials. The last track on side A and the B-side material is all previously unreleased, and its slightly less remarkable in various ways, either being more straight-up emo-y (Chicago Skier), or a long-running instrumental without much dynamism (9:30), or Model Train’s rawness a couple edits away from being a great song. But minor nitpicks, and we’ll circle back around to how cool it is that all this stuff was gathered in the first place.

And check out the digital! Even though the live cuts are pretty rough listening, you clearly hear how energetic this crew was, and the demo cuts show that the songs have power, even without any singing / shouting.