Melancholic in sound, lucid in subject, the Californian Natalie Mering had felt even before the arrival of the pandemic the need to work on a trilogy inspired by the “feeling of an imminent catastrophe”, whose And in the Darkness, Hearts Aglow is the second part. Her velvety voice haunts It’s not Just Me, It’s Everybody in the opening, the slow cadence lulled by piano chords and aerial choirs in counterpoint to one of those poignant melodies of which she has the secret. The lovely Children of the Empire appears to have been recorded in 1966 with the Wrecking Crew, conducted by Brian Wilson; on the despairing ballad grapevine, Mering laments that new technologies are driving us apart. His lustrous, retro pop song then drapes himself in light synths and a drum machine on Twin Flame, another fragile ballad opening a more pop and sparkling B-side. This fifth album by Weyes Blood appears opportunely at a time when the music press draws up its charts of the best albums of 2022.
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