Weyes Blood - Titanic Rising

Back in 2016 when Natalie Mering aka Weyes Blood, dropped her third album Front Row Seat to Earth, the pool of singer-songwriters was overstuffed. Despite this, Mering has continued to grow in the best possible ways. With her fourth album Titanic Rising, the Weyes Blood project goes from being modest to threatening, as Mering’s vast influences come crashing together in her most cohesive work yet.

“A Lot’s Gonna Change” feels like a transportation device, sending us back to the Carpenters, or dare I say ABBA in some respects. Mering isn’t hiding her influences, there are strands of Bowie in Titanic Rising – his more bombastic styles from Diamond Dogs, ever present on “Andromeda.” Tugging at the heartstrings with her soulful vocals, Mering pays homage only slightly to those folk heroes of the 60s and 70s, opting instead to forge her own path on Titanic Rising.

This love for nostalgia has gone on for quite some time, and few artists are able to weave it into sturdy – maybe even timeless – material, but Weyes Blood does it. “Everyday” is a jaunty 70s pop melody, bringing all of those lush sounds that we adore from classic rock radio with smooth yet playful production. “Everyday” has one of Mering’s most lovingly constructed choruses, warm and comforting, her vocals are powerful, evoking Annie Lennox, or even to some degree Alison Moyet.

Broken down into two halves, Titanic Rising’s first half is clearly 70s adulating folk rock, but the second half, split by the title track, and moving right into the best track on the record “Movies,” sets the tone for Side B gorgeously. Still, in the realm of that psychedelic folk that she’s carved out a niche for herself in, Mering gets pretty damn close to Nico level style, over a thoughtfully slow building synth. Paying tribute to the silver screen with “Movies,” Weyes Blood takes a sharp twist into experimental pop and it pays off gorgeously with pulsating synth and drumbeat that won’t quit. Her vocals soar over it as chills run down spines.

“Mirror Forever” keeps the momentum going, with unpredictable time signatures, synth blitzing, all the while Mering’s thunderous vocals command attention. She’s moving out of the homage aspect of her music and creating something memorable with Titanic Rising’s second half. But it’s her uncanny ability to twist all of these influences and still make something original that makes Titanic Rising such a triumph. She ends the album with “Picture Me Better,” another folk number sugar coated with beautiful strings. It’s moments like this that make Titanic Rising a gem of an album – it’s thoughtful, endearing, but also risky and unpredictable, and is quite possibly the best album we’ve seen from Weyes Blood so far.