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Nashville-based alternative band, mercury, aches through a life cycle of self-reflection in their 3-song EP and companion short film, Together We Are One, You and I. 

Opening track, “Born In Early May,” is built around a grunge guitar riff, distorted with the perfect edge of grit that it captures both delicate waves of upset and triumphant anger in its sound. The visuals follow its lead, coursing through gothically devotional scenes: an angel statue being painted, hair being shaved from a head, a little girl holding flowers, a tattooed man buttoning his shirt. There’s a notion of expelling something, just a thread intertwined in the urgency of the guitar and lead singer Maddie Kerr’s vocals. She taps into a midwest emo space, lilting through a yodel that is barely restrained fervor. 

The drums settle into a bold new pattern, and the images take on a hardened determination, surging in desperation. It’s a series of exorcisms – whether metaphorical or literal – ending with a shot of Maddie crying, bathed in darkness. It clicks that maybe the images were all parts of her she’s expelled, giving a twist of catharsis to “Born in Early May.” 

As “Special” begins, we pick up where we left off, with Maddie on the ground in darkness, shaking off this slumber or daze or feeling. We spiral around her, each rotation of the camera beckoning back a previous character to interact with Maddie as she delivers this story. The guitar is a hungry, aching current, flowing over the winding bass line. “Special” is a sonically and visually intimate experience in the timeline of this short film, a fitting middle as we watch Maddie share moments with this range of characters – from winged people to old men to what could be a younger version of herself. 

“Crick” is the final act of Together We Are One, You and I, wrapping up this three-part release with a climactic release. The film shifts into black and white as mercury paints from a shoegaze palette, with drums working overtime to punctuate the emotional scope of the track. Slight hints to 2000s pop come through in the guitar riff, but are balanced by an all-consuming chorus: a wall of distorted catharsis. As the images are warped and reversed under a dreamy filter, “Crick” starts to feel like a look back at memories, and Maddie Kerr sings: “I wish I had the words to say how I was feeling when I felt it…” 

This is the full circle moment, taking listeners from a self-introduction in “Born in Early May” to this closing retrospective. The film ends with this cast of characters in a witchy formation, their bodies under white sheets. mercury has built a world around Together We Are One, You and I, letting listeners experience them as a connected narrative not often achieved in the modern music landscape of one-off singles. Visually and sonically, this release is a triumph of alternative music, and a beautiful representation of mercury’s artistry.