Weyes Blood - Titanic Rising - [Vinyl]

The phantom zone, the parallax, the upside down-there is a rich cultural history of exploring in-between places. Through her latest, Titanic Rising, Weyes Blood, a.k.a. Natalie Mering, has designed her own universe to soulfully navigate life�s mysteries. Maneuvering through a space-time continuum, she plays the role of melodic, sometimes melancholic, anthropologist. Tellingly, Mering classifies Titanic Rising - which was written and recorded during the first half of 2018, after three albums and years of touring - as the Kinks meet WWII or Bob Seger meets Enya. The latter captures the album�s willful expansiveness (�You can tell there�s not a guy pulling the strings in Enya�s studio,� she notes, admiringly). The former relays her imperative to connect with listeners. �The clarity of Bob Seger is unmistakable. I�m a big fan of conversational songwriting,� she adds. �I just try to do that in a way that uses abstract imagery as well.� The Weyes Blood frontwoman grew up singing in gospel and madrigal choirs. (Listen closely to Titanic Rising, and you�ll also hear the jazz of Hoagy Carmichael mingle with the artful mysticism of Alejandro Jodorowsky and the monomyth of scholar Joseph Campbell.) �Something to Believe,� a confessional that makes judicious use of the slide guitar, touches on that cosmological upbringing. �Belief is something all humans need. Shared myths are part of our psychology and survival,� she says. �Now we have a weird mishmash of capitalism and movies and science. There have been moments where I felt very existential and lost.� As a kid, she filled that void with Titanic. (Yes, the movie.) �It was engineered for little girls and had its own mythology,� she explains. Mering also noticed that the blockbuster romance actually offered a story about loss born of man�s hubris. �It�s so symbolic that The Titanic would crash into an iceberg, and now that iceberg is melting, sinking civilization.� Today, this hubris also extends to the relentless adoption of technology, at the expense of both happiness and attention spans. But Weyes Blood isn�t one to stew. Her observations play out in an ethereal saunter: far more meditative than cynical. To Mering, listening and thinking are concurrent experiences. �There are complicated influences mixed in with more relatable nostalgic melodies,� she says. �In my mind my music feels so big, a true production. I�m not a huge, popular artist, but I feel like one when I�m in the studio. But it�s never taking away from the music. I�m just making a bigger space for myself.�

Weyes Blood - Titanic Rising - [Vinyl]

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