Mercury is back, and she’s not playing nice. The Tennessee-born genre-bending rock-bred force Maddie Kerr is back with a hypnotic new single, “Swarm the Hive Mind,” released today. Reuniting with indie rock wizard Alex Farrar, MJ Lenderman, and Snail Mail, Mercury has pulled her sound into something even gnarlier and more unshakable.
“Swarm the Hive Mind” is an avalanche of post-rock texturing, fusing the haze of shoegaze with the gut-blow of metal. A fuzzed-out bass line churns under “Swarm the Hive Mind,” looping like a slow passage into chaos, and Mercury’s ghostly vocals dart through the madness, both grounding and elevating the storm. When the heaviness seems crushing, a shimmering hi-hat groove slips through, the glancing breath of indie-pop lightness in the darkness.
This is what Mercury does best. She draws you in with beauty and then stands you up with distortion and dread. “Swarm the Hive Mind” is cerebral and visceral, an eye peering into a kaleidoscope that turns into a black hole on a dime. It’s a track made for those who like their music with a dirty side and a delicate one foot in the dream world and one in the pit.