Titanic Risen

You're No Good

You're No Good (From 'Minions: The Rise of Gru' Soundtrack)

And In The Darkness, Hearts Aglow

And in the Darkness

Twin Flame

In Holy Flux

Children of the Empire

God Turn Me Into a Flower

It's Not Just Me, It's Everybody

Grapevine

Hearts Aglow

A Given Thing

The Worst Is Done

When You're Smiling

When You're Smiling (From "A Small Light: Episode 5")

Front Row Seat to Earth

Seven Words

Be Free

Generation Why

Do You Need My Love

Used to Be

Titanic Rising

Andromeda

Everyday

Movies

Something to Believe

Nearer to Thee

Wild Time

A Lot's Gonna Change

Picture Me Better

Mirror Forever

Rough Trade Session

A Lot Has Changed (Rough Trade Session)

Something to Believe (Rough Trade Session)

Technological fatigue. Narcissism anxiety. A galaxy of isolation. These are the new norms keeping Weyes Blood (aka Natalie Mering) up at night and the themes at the heart of her latest release, And in the Darkness, Hearts Aglow (Sub Pop Records). 

The album is her follow-up to the acclaimed Titanic Rising. (Pitchfork, NPR, The Guardian admiringly named it one of 2019’s best.)  Where Titanic was an observation of doom to come, And in the Darkness, Hearts Aglow is about being in the thick of it: a search for an escape hatch to liberate us from algorithms and ideological chaos. “We’re in a fully functional shit show,” Mering says. “My heart is a glow stick that’s been cracked, lighting up my chest in an explosion of earnestness.”

And in the Darkness, Hearts Aglow opens with the wistful, winsome “It's Not Just Me, It's Everybody” — about the interconnectivity of all beings, but also the fraying of society around us. “I was asking a lot of questions while writing these songs. Hyper isolation kept coming up,” Mering says. “Our culture relies less and less on people. Something is off, and even though the feeling appears differently for each individual, it is universal.”

Other tracks follow in kind. The lullaby-like “Grapevine” chronicles the splintering of a human connection. The otherworldly dirge “God Turn Me into a Flower” serves as an allegory about our collective hubris. “The Worst Is Done” is an ominous warning, set against a deceivingly breezy pop melody. 

“Chaos is natural. But so is negentropy, or the tendency for things to fall into order,” she says. “These songs may not be manifestos or solutions, but I know they shed light on the meaning of our contemporary disillusionment.”

Weyes Blood

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