Weyes Blood

Transcendent and sometimes wistful, the folk-pop of LA-based Weyes Blood (aka Natalie Mering) explores all that drives, divides and destroys people. It sounds like heavy stuff, but Mering is an effortless guide. Though burdened by doubt, she is buoyed by hope, her music unfolds with breathtaking nuance and ease.

"Bob Seger meets Enya" is how she once described her work. When one listens to Weyes Blood's otherworldly expansiveness and hook-laden melodies, one realises she's not exaggerating.

Weyes Blood's breakout album on Sub Pop, Titanic Rising (named one of the best albums of 2019 by Pitchfork, NPR, and The Guardian), was an observation of doom to come. Its follow-up, And in the Darkness, Hearts Aglow*, finds them in the thick of it, looking for an escape hatch, away from algorithms and ideological chaos.

Mering grew up singing in gospel and madrigal choirs before picking up the guitar at the age of 8. This, mixed with her love of jazz, filmmaker Alejandro Jodorowsky and scholar Joseph Campbell, has shaped her music, which tells stories of myths both ancient and modern.