Search - No Mercy :: Greatest Hits (Gold Disc)

Sweet memories

Sarah A. Doubi | 04/15/2008

(5 out of 5 stars)

"a wonderful CD that brings many sweet memories back to any one who listen's to it."

Had to Write this Showing No Mercy

E. A. Boyce | Phoenix, AZ, United States | 10/04/2009

(2 out of 5 stars)

"It was shortly after moving recently and digging through my wealth of CD's that I was intrigued to put on No Mercy's debut album. Being older now and better able to assess things musically I was blown away. I liked No Mercy back in the day, but I by no measure realized No Mercy. This got me curious and I ordered "No Mercy Greatest Hits". I didn't know what to expect, but I really wasn't prepared for what I found...



I don't know the story behind why Everything but the Girl's "Missing" was chosen at some point as a cover, but to an outsider like me it would appear it is because someone (who shall not remain nameless... keep reading) saw it better to chase covers than to introduce original material. This is not to say that between No Mercy's debut album and this greatest hits compilation that there was no new, original material... there was, but it is apparently not "greatest hits" material. Something tells me that No Mercy didn't have much input on this compilation. It's got No Mercy's name on it, No Mercy's picture on it, but is nearly void of No Mercy. This is too bad for Gabriel Hernandez, Ariel Hernandez, and Marty Cintron because it steals an opportunity for No Mercy to show itself as songwriters, composers, and musicians. The main comfort is there being any song at all to be performed does give Mr. Cintron an opportunity to at least do just that - perform. Show himself. Give us what he's got. The man's a gem.



No Mercy's career has been lost in the fog, at least in the United States (which is where I am, and hence the perspective from which I write), and unless one had latched onto it at just the right time, or has discovered what kind of goldmine actually lies within Mr. Cintron, one has long since forgotten. I, however, latched on in 1996, and have since finally discovered Marty Cintron. As in many tracks, in "Missing", Marty Cintron is at least given a template to which he can lend his voice and unfaltering guitar work. It is up to the listener to appreciate it. I will give it this: it beats Korn covering Pink Floyd - and I'm a metalhead.



Along that line, it is also up to the listener - or perhaps at this point, "consumer" is a better word - to distinguish between bad performance/musicianship on Mr. Cintron's part (which he has yet to display), and let's face it, bad decision-making on [perhaps] someone else's part. Let us examine this.



Track six, "Hello How Are You", is the same emotional, heartfelt giving of it all by which listeners have come to know Cintron's vocals, but the general feel of the song is that of a curdled German nightmare. Yes, I blame the producer. How Cintron's beautiful Latin finger picking can give way to what brings to mind visions of the Troika being danced by Bavarian-clad middle-agesters on the streets of Tokyo is beyond me. How all of this adds up to said "curdled German nightmare" is also beyond me. Hence, you see the embafflement of it. And the picardy thirds... Marty! Was that YOU? No! Whose idea was that? And why?



Upon seeing that Boston's "More than a Feeling" and Led Zeppelin's "D'Yer Mak R" are on the album I wished I could flash Cintron my best rawk hand and ask him to marry me. I thought, "Dios mio. ¿Puede ser que tambien este hombre es roquero como yo? Estoy segura que lo amo." One dream dead, and the other all but over, upon listening. I'm not sure anymore what exactly killed Brad Delp. John Bonham, however, was already dead. Allow me to stress that if these songs had a saving grace it would be Cintron's presence and essence. He carries it in his voice, which is unfortunately fatally dueled with by the decision makers. Not being privy to contract verbiage and what went on behind closed doors only leads me to surmise that production is to blame ("All songs produced by"... not seeing it. Was I sold a bootleg? Sony BMG Music Entertainment (Germany) GmbH takes all the credit. Yadda yadda. I blame Frank Farian, folks!). That, and I've been in-studio on plenty an album/song/mix and know what can happen... and I recognize the gem that is Marty Cintron. My entire being is certain that someone else's decision-making power outweighed Mr. Cintron's own good sense.



Actually, what I've come to surmise is that No Mercy might have had nothing to do with the release of this album at all. It seems it was, "Guess what, guys. We have rights. We're releasing a greatest hits album. See you on the flip side." This would explain everything.



Back to the music. I will attempt to summarize tracks seven and nine by saying that not even in desperate times could I torment myself by imagining Boston's most famed and beloved power ballad as being formatted for "The Lion King" soundtrack. Two of the most cherished characteristics of Boston's sound - Delp's poignant and smooth-as-glass vocals, and Scholz's dueling harmonized guitar licks - cannot be muted into sub-par synthesizer basics. Then, you don't make a reggae RE-mix of your OWN song, let alone a reggae mix of a Led Zeppelin song. It might be all the rage in Berlin (is it? Just supposing), but it's never a good idea. Key changes are equally as bad as picardy thirds. In thinking of these two songs a la Farian, I fantasize that maybe I'm just clueless of a Euro-pop stage version of something called "Disney Wieder Gemacht!" where "D'Yer Mak R" is set to "The Jungle Book".



Not only is Farian a master at making things (i.e. Milli Vanilli), but also in RE-making things. This greatest hits consists of enough known covers to take up five fingers, and then, thanks to the benefit of obscurity in foreign markets, about as many other tracks were nearly undetected as recycled Farian offspring. Believe it or not, I'd never heard of Boney M. before, but they'd already made a name for Ms. Biaz in 1981, and oddly enough were a product of... wait for it... Frank Farian! I had to do a search on "Consuela Biaz" (why is the track listed as "Biaz" when Cintron enunciates "Baez"?) because, while I don't know Marty Cintron, I knew enough to know it just had to be out of his character. This is all true, folks, because in my pursuit for knowledge I came to find that Boney M. and Milli Vanilli both have albums that house "Ma Baker". I have that Milli Vanilli album. I bought it on purpose more than a decade after the fiasco was exposed. I guess I'm as big of a sucker for European imports as Farian is a fiend for European exports. No Mercy shouldn't be a European export, but that's the direction things took. I pondered a claptrap element that European audiences would devour the cliché of a fine Puerto Rican man singing a song with a title named after a Latina, but the discovery of Boney M. sent that theory down the tubes. Eeeehhhh, still, you never know. Who else's album was it recycled on?



It's an undertaking to write a review of a 16-track greatest hits compilation, and I understand it's an undertaking reading one as well. Not touching on every track, from start to finish the album has essences of several acts that were on the same plane in one way or another as No Mercy back during their debut album. There are detections of Ace of Base, Haddaway, Roxette, Milli Vanilli, Color Me Badd, and oddly, Hall & Oats. It's the "Baby, Come Back" cover. Even though that's not a Hall & Oats song. Just go along with me. Thankfully, the essence of Marty Cintron doesn't get lost in the mix. It seems evident to me that the track listing is whatever edifies Mr. Farian, or whoever most benefited from contract verbiage. This is too bad for No Mercy because what this album displays is not a reflection of what (at least what I believe in my heart) No Mercy is. Yes, No Mercy has had great European success, and Europe has been good to No Mercy, but a quarter says that's due to hooking up with Farian. Had there been a US-based producer at the helm, the story of No Mercy would have a different setting. And hence so might it not be served up with a side of sauerkraut. Cintron's guitar playing doesn't belong in a curdled German nightmare. What's wrong with plantains?



The danceability of No Mercy's music unfortunately gave way to the Farian Vision and was overrun by Euro-dance popularity. Marty Cintron is an amazing guitarist whose playing should be showcased for what it is; not framed in a marketing ploy for what someone else can get out of it.



It's up to each listener to have his or her own sentiment on the album. This is mine. Frank Farian is to be thanked for getting No Mercy on the map, but this display is the pudding that proved it was necessary to part ways. In 2007, both this greatest hits CD was released as well as No Mercy's [then] new album "Day by Day". On what is the official website of No Mercy, Cintron stated that No Mercy began their own record label, Show No Mercy Entertainment, on which "Day by Day" was released. Now, released independently on their own label, yes, but who produced it is something I haven't yet uncovered (forsooth! I do not yet own "Day by Day"... or an iPod), but from what I can't find, Farian was hands off. I hope I'm right. In listening to clips it sounds like No Mercy as I'd always felt No Mercy to really be. That brings me to my next thought. This isn't a factual statement. This hasn't been researched. This is just my best guess. There was a parting of ways and this greatest hits CD was the last hurrah for those who were being left behind. No Mercy was the party who was moving on. The track listing is enough to entice No Mercy fans, but simultaneously more than enough to build the House of Farian. Granted, maybe it was all Sony BMG Music Entertainment (Germany) GmbH, but the bottom line is, I could never believe No Mercy was driving this album. That's what this reviewer sees as what is underlying the greatest hits. Whose hits?



It's impossible to listen to the CD without feeling frantic emotions that there was something from which No Mercy desperately needed and deserved to break free. If you have a taste for the Farian-esque, this album is for you. None of this is to discount Ariel and Gabriel Hernandez, God bless them, but I have one last statement. If you just like No Mercy, I would still recommend this album because, while it might be painful, no matter what is done to Marty Cintron the musician, he shines through it."