Weyes Blood - And in the Darkness, Hearts Aglow

  by Zena Grieg

published: 7 / 1 / 2023

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Review

Californian singer-songwriter Natalie Mering (aka Weyes Blood) has released a new solo album, her fifth, the second part of a proposed trilogy. ‘And In The Darkness, Hearts Aglow’ stands in juxtaposition to the “impending doom” of the first part, the 2019 ‘Titanic Rising’, with an intended more optimistic conclusion to the trilogy still to come. Composed during lockdown, fluctuating between nostalgia and cautious optimism, the album is what Weyes Blood calls “a dystopian romance novel”, its focus firmly on the impact of the pandemic. Citing church music as an inspiration with parents ‘born-again’ Christians, the singer, although declaring she is no longer religious, still embraces a ‘small interior space’ for spirituality, sprinkling references to angels, sins and pierced palms across the songs: “When I record, I think about sacred space and I think about what would be the sound of your soul if there is music coming out of it”. Highlights of this cross-genre ten-track collection include: the lead single, muted opener ‘It’s Not Just Me, It’s Everybody’, its central thread of isolation elaborately counterpointed by strings and a fairy-tale harp; ‘Children Of The Empire’ with its intricate arrangement embracing an array of instrumentation from tubular bells to tuba; the sombre country-folk ‘Grapevine’ on estrangement: “Now we’re just two cars passing by on the Grapevine”(an area on the California highway); the quirky ‘God Turn Me Into A Flower’ with its idiosyncratic harpsichord accompaniment, layered vocals and synths and climactic electronic dawn chorus; the tender, hopeful title track; and the upbeat ‘The Worst Is Done’ about surviving lockdown in LA. Existential themes abound in this inventive record, rousing anticipation of the final part of the trilogy, promised soon.

Track Listing:-

1 It's Not Just Me, It's Everybody
2 Children of the Empire
3 Grapevine
4 God Turn Me Into a Flower
5 Hearts Aglow
6 And in the Darkness
7 Twin Flame
8 In Holy Flux
9 The Worst Is Done
10 A Given Thing

Band Links:-

https://www.weyesblood.com/
https://www.facebook.com/weyesblood/
https://twitter.com/WeyesBlood

Label Links:-

https://www.subpop.com/
https://www.facebook.com/subpoprecords
https://plus.google.com/+subpop
https://twitter.com/subpop
http://subpop.tumblr.com/
https://www.youtube.com/user/subpoprec

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