Remo Drive, the longstanding project of brothers Erik and Stephen Paulson, want you to feel something. Following a six year run of pristine emo-influenced rock ‘n’ roll records comes Mercy, the band’s fourth album and third for Epitaph. It’s the band’s most lyric-focused offering to date, a record about reinvention, trusting yourself, and wearing your heart on your sleeve even when it’s painful or vulnerable.

Mercy has its origins in a move. Specifically: Erik moved to the sleepy upstate city of Albany, New York during the pandemic, Stephen stayed back in the duo’s native Minnesota. In his new environment, Erik wrote constantly. He’d play alone in his room, allowing himself to use his music to think existentially about life. About the complexities of being in a relationship, the complexities of making art and having it be received by a wide audience, the complexities of being in a new environment and finding your footing (as he sings in “New In Town,” “Apparently everyone’s going to Susie’s/I’m not exactly sure who that is”). Mercy, thus, is in some ways a record about getting in touch with your mental health, deprogramming what you thought you knew about yourself and using music to unlock inner honesty. It lends to some of the band’s strongest lyrical work in their career, from the impressionistic introspection of “White Dress,” to the pointed naturalism on “All You’ll Ever Catch.”