Titanic Rising - Weyes Blood


It’s time to look at singer-songwriter Weyes Blood’s latest record, her first sub-pop release, Titanic Rising.

Weyes Blood is an artist who has been working for years at crafting her sound. She’s the sort of artist who you’ve perhaps stumbled upon and listened to once on a late night of YouTube recommendations. You sit there intrigued by her sound of the carpenters meeting the 21st century and sit mellowed out to her songs until suddenly its over and its forgettable, it simply doesn’t grab you, assault your ears and force you to remember it. Instead you look at the name Weyes Blood and think ‘hey I kind of like her.’

For me that was my experience with her song Do You Need My Love from Front Row Seat To Earth (2016), I liked it but I didn’t love it. It soared, it was beautiful but it was shy of great.

With Titanic Rising her sound hasn’t changed exactly. She hasn’t left the Karen Carpenter comparison behind but she no longer sounds quite so pastiche. She sounds as fresh as possible while still wearing her 70s influences quiet clearly on her shoulder.

The emotional peak of the record comes from the song Movies, which mixes a lushly melancholic melody with lyrics that preach the contradictions of cinema, the harshness of dream unfulfillment and how cinema perpetuates dreams of fantasy on their fans.

The record is, unlike its name sake, worthy of all the praise it has got over the past months and is the most complete comprehensive listening experience I’ve heard since Blackstar. It is a wonderful record which while sounding familiar is dashingly fresh and is a strong contender for album of the year despite its early release date.

Now stop reading and go listen to it.


The Must Listens: Everyday, Movies, Andromeda, Wild Time, A Lot Is Gonna Change.

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