And in the Darkness, Hearts Aglow by Weyes Blood | Album Review

As of 2019, Natalie Mering had accrued intrigue across the music world with a steady repertoire of releases, weaving a style that continued to grow into places already set in time by precursory albums. From the hauntological folk tales wistfully obscuring The Outside Room, to the emboldened awakening of voice carried in forlorn timbre through Front Row Seat to Earth, the emergently ethereal figure, Weyes Blood, grew into her own state of becoming. In the footfalls of Front Row Seat, with its evolving meshed-style of 70s folk, dreamy-psych and classicalist elements, no one could deny the sense of captive inevitability in Mering’s ear pricking voice.

Titanic Rising arrived to great expectations, which were quickly supplanted with what would become the most enduring and realized entry by the Pennsylvanian singer/songwriter thus far, gathering an abundance of critical acclaim and praise. Helming music journals BrooklynVegan and Paste’s top album lists for 2019 at #1, Titanic Rising continued along its self-respective way, scoring epic kudos from The Needle Drop and reddit users alike—even earning the attention of the revered Pitchfork and their much lauded commendatory “best new music” distinction. Accolades aside, Titanic Rising is a very personal record that quickly became dear to many listeners. Themes build meaning out of the meaningless, to muddle and swirl about in the shimmering waters of life’s complexities, but never coagulate into bitterness. Endearing interests in the cosmos and art are entertained on tracks like “Andromeda” and “Movies” while orchestral elements are uplifted throughout the record and drip with electronic antiquity, tinged with the romantic bloom of strings. The album sounds every bit a lost-to-time traversal through floating limbo states, recorded and broadcasted out to extraterrestrial receivers, then fed back through slowly flooding air vents of nostalgia’s bedroom. Every aspect that felt poised and chrysaloid about Front Row Seat to Earth is delivered in bared-soul grandeur on Titanic Rising.

Now, three years later, Titanic Rising is succeeded by Weyes Blood’s newest record: And in the Darkness, Hearts Aglow. In a Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds move, And in the Darkness was revealed to be a sequel to Mering’s acclaimed 2019 album, slotted for what will be a trilogy of releases on Sub Pop Records. Still transitioning and ever shifting, we find ourselves well within a world of change—or sometimes utter lack thereof—acknowledging it for what it is and suffering a few laughs for the sake of its ironies. “The Worst Is Done” finds us amongst strangers, both within ourselves and others, as we question the loaded appeasement that the worst problems of life are in fact over, attempting to reconnect us to an estranged world. These sentiments are echoed and drawn to a unifying whole with Mering’s humming choral, serving, perhaps, as other voices lifting in affirmations of the difficulty with “picking up where we left off” in times of flux. “It’s Not Just Me, It’s Everybody” attempts to scrape some semblance of a bigger picture together in a sea of confusion, while trying to peer beyond the breaking waves of circumstance—ultimately reaching solace in the absent guarantees of an unknown existence, shared by everybody. The lines “it’s not just me, it’s everybody” cascade in this building outro and taper off, only to be picked up with clear keys and a marching percussive opening on “Children of the Empire,” sharing lessons of love with the lost and afraid. Rising steadily, no longer floating in the silent stagnant expectations of oncoming hardship, we are living through them with And in the Darkness, seeking direction and perhaps finding it, or perhaps finding none as on “Hearts Aglow” but gaining confidence all the while through our searching. As a sequel, And in the Darkness, Hearts Aglow attempts to follow a monumentally successful album, and succeeds. Only time determines whether And in the Darkness will glow with the same enduring quality as Titanic Rising, though its light is new and bright and shows no signs of dimming.

augustbarquin

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