If there was one take away from Between Me and My Mind, the 2019 documentary following Phish’s Trey Anastasio, then it’s that aging suits him well. Often, there were intimate, vulnerable moments captured between the guitarist and his immediate family, where he confronts his past in real-time. It’s obviously not a unique feeling, by any means. But seeing him this way felt new, and it’s clear Anastasio has moved into a different stage of life, one where appreciation and gratitude are paramount in his daily existence. You can hear these concepts brimming throughout mercy, his first-ever solo acoustic album. The music here is very sparse—Anastasio is adept at the acoustic guitar—but it’s more meant to be a bed for these very human thoughts to lie in. On the opening track “a little more time,” he sets the mood with a plea to change the past and make things better. The title track “mercy” is more blunted with his emotions, as he sings, “Am I ripped in two / The breathing wind speaks slowly / Mercy / Mercy.” It’s prayer-like in its delivery, and feels akin to an open declaration at the end of life. Not every emotion is incredibly heavy, though. On “flying blind,” he explores the restorative power of love and on “blazing down the twisted wire,” the tone is light, even though the lyrics are seemingly about anxiety-fueled brain obsessions. But overall, this nine-song album bring up a lot of emotions from the past two years: loneliness, our past lives and how we reckon with all of that. Anastasio was vocal about his thoughts on the pandemic, and played through them by staging the Beacon Jams, posting videos on Instagram, releasing his 2020 set, Lonely Trip, and recording his intimate duets album, December with Page McConnell. It would be easy to say that the pandemic has been good for Anastasio creatively—being off the road has clearly increased his output. But mercy is something different, even if it did emerge from pandemic times. If you look at the title alone, the lower case “m” feels incredibly deliberate. mercy is humble and grateful at the same time in its presentation.