Front Row Seat To Earth

Natalie Mering verzückt mit ihren 60ies-Folk-angehauchten Melodien, klirrenden Gitarren, Orgeln und rasselnden Trommeln. Emotional, herzzerreißend, sirenenhaft... Ein sehr stringenter Entwurf, der den Westcoast-Sound der 70ies durch eine wirklich individuelle Künstlerin direkt in die Gegenwart bringt und dennoch die Patina des Originals trägt. Das Songwriting ist komplex, aber dennoch nicht sperrig, sondern zugänglich. Ein schönes und surreales Video: https://player.vimeo.com/video/178103466 Natalie Mering, the being behind Weyes Blood, embeds her sublime song in a harmonic gauze of arpeggiated piano, acoustic guitar, druggy horns, & outer space electronics. Propulsive, spare drums carry us across the album's course. There is a faded California beauty to Front Row. A gentle honesty that recalls the finest folk music made on the West Coast of the '70s. The hue hangs in the sweet-spooky harmonies, the pulsing sway of the vibrato & the ecstatic chord resolves. But this beauty is scratched with shadow; with dark foreboding, alienation, & acceptance of change. Love & loss balance together in suspended alchemy, as the earthiness of the singer-songwriter tradition wears digital sounds like feathers in its hair. Mering, together with co-producer Chris Cohen contrasts live band intimacy with the post-modern electric sheen of A.M. radio atmospherics. The experimental flourishes sparkle amid the succinct, thoughtful arrangements. The closeness of this record - how personal, alone, & frank it feels - conceals its aspirations to the outside, to the "Earth" of its title. Weyes Blood harbors devastating weight while also universalizing the strange ways of identity & relationships. These are not typical love songs or protest songs -- they are painful, poignant riddles that celebrate the ambiguity of love & affirm the conflict of harmonious life within a disharmonic world.