Finally. Weyes Blood has announced the anticipated follow-up to her great 2019 album, Titanic Rising (our #1 album of that year). It's titled And In The Darkness, Hearts Aglow, and will be out November 18 via Sub Pop; pre-order it on purple "Loser Edition" vinyl. Like Titanic Rising, Natalie Mering worked with co-producer Jonathan Rado, as well as Rodaidh McDonald on one track, “A Given Thing.” The album, which Mering says is part two of a trilogy started with Titanic, also features contributions from Meg Duffy (Hand Habits), Daniel Lopatin (Oneohtrix Point Never), and Mary Lattimore.
If Titanic Rising was a harbinger of doom, Hearts Aglow is in the middle of it. “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.”
The first single from the album is the gorgeous “It’s Not Just Me, It’s Everybody” that Mering says is "a Buddhist anthem, ensconced in the interconnectivity of all beings, and the fraying of our social fabric." She adds in a letter about the album, "Our culture relies less and less on people. This breeds a new, unprecedented level of isolation. The promise we can buy our way out of that emptiness offers little comfort in the face of fear we all now live with - the fear of becoming obsolete. Something is off, and even though the feeling appears differently for each individual, it is universal."
You can listen to “It’s Not Just Me, It’s Everybody," and read Natalie's full letter on the album, below.
Weyes Blood will celebrate the release of her new album with a special L.A. show at The Theatre at Ace Hotel on December 8, and in early 2023 will head out on the “In Holy Flux Tour,” that includes a NYC show at Brooklyn Steel on March 3. Tickets for all 2023 dates go on sale Friday, September 16 at 10 AM local time. All dates are listed below.
Tracklist
1. It’s Not Just Me, It’s Everybody
2. Children of the Empire
3. Grapevine
4. God Turn Me Into a Flower
5. Hearts Aglow
6. And in the Darkness
7. Twin Flame
8. In Holy Flux
9. The Worst Is Done
10. A Given Thing
Hello Listener,
Well, here we are! Still making it all happen in our very own, fully functional shit show. My heart, like a glow stick that's been cracked, lights up my chest in a little explosion of earnestness. And when your heart's on fire, smoke gets in your eyes.
Titanic Rising was the first album of three in a special trilogy. It was an observation of things to come, the feelings of impending doom. And in the Darkness, Hearts Aglow is about entering the next phase, the one in which we all find ourselves today - we are literally in the thick of it. Feeling around in the dark for meaning in a time of instability and irrevocable change. Looking for embers where fire used to be. Seeking freedom from algorithms and a destiny of repetitive loops. Information is abundant, and yet so abstract in its use and ability to provoke tangible actions.
Our mediums of communication are fraught with caveats. Our pain, an ironic joke born from a gridlocked panopticon of our own making, swirling on into infinity. I was asking a lot of questions while writing these songs, and hyper isolation kept coming up for me. "It's Not Just Me, It's Everybody" is a Buddhist anthem, ensconced in the interconnectivity of all beings, and the fraying of our social fabric. Our culture relies less and less on people. This breeds a new, unprecedented level of isolation. The promise we can buy our way out of that emptiness offers little comfort in the face of fear we all now live with - the fear of becoming obsolete. Something is off, and even though the feeling appears differently for each individual, it is universal.
Technology is harvesting our attention away from each other. We all have a "Grapevine" entwined around our past with unresolved wounds and pain. Being in love doesn't necessarily mean being together. Why else do so many love songs yearn for a connection?
Could it be narcissism? We encourage each other to aspire - to reach for the external to quell our desires, thinking goals of wellness and bliss will alleviate the baseline anxiety of living in a time like ours. We think the answer is outside ourselves, through technology, imaginary frontiers that will magically absolve us of all our problems. We look everywhere but in ourselves for a salve. In "God Turn Me into a Flower" I relay the myth of Narcissus, whose obsession with a reflection in a pool leads him to starve and lose all perception outside his infatuation. In a state of great hubris, he doesn't recognize that the thing he so passionately desired was ultimately just himself. God turns him into a pliable flower who sways with the universe.
The pliable softness of a flower has become my mantra as we barrel on toward an uncertain fate. I gee the heart as a quide, with an emanation of hope, shining through in this dark ago. Somewhere along the line, we lost the plot on who we are. Chaos ia natural. But so is negentropy, or the tendency for things to fall into order. These songs may not be manifestos or solutions, but I know they shed light on the meaning of our contemporary disillusionment. And maybe that' the beginning of the nuanced journey towards understanding the natural cycles of life and death, all over again.
Thoughts and prayes,
Natalie Mering (aka Weyes Blood)
Weyes Blood - 2022 Tour Dates
Thu. Dec. 8 - Los Angeles, CA - The Theatre at Ace Hotel
Sat.Jan. 28 - Berlin, DE - Festsaal Kreuzberg
Mon. Jan. 30 - Stockholm, SE - Berns
Tue. Jan. 31- Oslo, NO - Rockefeller
Wed. Feb. 01 - Copenhagen, DK - VEGA
Fri. Feb. 03 - Cologne, DE - Kulturkirche
Sat. Feb. 04 - Paris, FR - Le Trianon
Sun. Feb. 05 - Brussels, BE - Botanique - Orangerie
Mon. Feb. 06 - Amsterdam, NL - Paradiso
Wed. Feb.08 - London, UK - Roundhouse
Thu. Feb. 09 - Bristol, UK - SWX
Fri. Feb. 10 - Glasgow, UK - QMU
Sun. Feb. 12- Dublin, IE - Vicar Street
Mon. Feb. 13 - Manchester, UK - O2 Ritz
Tue. Feb. 14 - Brighton, UK - CHALK
Wed. Feb. 22 - Nashville, TN - Brooklyn Bowl
Thu. Feb. 23 - Atlanta, GA - Variety Playhouse
Fri. Feb. 24 - Asheville, NC - The Orange Peel
Sat. Feb. 25 - Carrboro, NC - Cat's Cradle
Mon. Feb. 27 - Washington, DC - 9:30 Club
Tue. Feb. 28 - Philadelphia, PA - Union Transfer
Fri. Mar. 03 - Brooklyn, NY - Brooklyn Steel
Sun. Mar. 05 - Boston, MA - Royale
Tue. Mar. 07 - Montreal, QC - Corona Theatre
Wed. Mar. 08 - Toronto, ON - The Danforth Music Hall
Fri. Mar. 10 - Detroit, MI - El Club
Sat. Mar. 11 - Chicago, IL - Riviera Theatre
Mon. Mar. 13 - Milwaukee, WI - The Pabst Theater
Tue. Mar. 14 - Minneapolis, MN - First Avenue
Wed. Mar. 15 - Des Moines, IA - Wooly's
Fri. Mar. 17 - Englewood, CO - Gothic Theatre
Sat. Mar. 18 - Salt Lake City, UT - The Depot
Sun. Mar. 19 - Boise, ID - Knitting Factory Concert House
Tue. Mar. 21 - Vancouver, BC - Commodore Ballroom
Wed. Mar. 22 - Seattle, WA - The Showbox
Thu. Mar. 23 - Portland, OR - McMenamins Crystal Ballroom
Sat. Mar. 25 - San Francisco, CA - The Regency Ballroom
Tue. Mar. 28 - Phoenix, AZ - The Van Buren
Wed. Mar. 29 - Santa Fe, NM - Meow Wolf
Fri. Mar. 31 - Austin, TX - Stubb's Waller Creek Amphitheater
Sat. Apr. 01 - Dallas, TX - Studio at The Factory
Sun. Apr. 02 - Tulsa, OK - Cain's Ballroom