Titanic Rising, the third album from Weyes Blood, was built up into something before it was even released, (a week back) by glowing, almost effusive reviews. The record has proved more than worthy of the hype. It's a very fine album indeed, and is sure to feature highly on end of year review lists.
It's something of a portal back to the joys of Seventies AOR radio. Particularly to the memory of Karen Carpenter and The Carpenters whose glorious legacy is triggered again and again in the beautiful doomed romanticism of the layered melodies on show here.
I was entranced by Everyday, the song and video that acted as a taster for Titanic Rising a couple of months back. It's one of the best songs I've heard this year by a country mile and I wondered whether the album could live up to it frankly. No problem there, Titanic Rising is effused throughout with the same dewy eyed nostalgia and inspiration.
If it might be viewed as an escapist exercise from the anxiety of our current age, I'd forgive it that too, but I think it's more than that. The record is drenched in the sense of romantic loss and Natalie Mering, (who is Weyes Blood, her moniker a play on the Flannery O'Connor novel Wise Blood),assembles all of her influences, and here they're clearly Seventies ones, and reconstitutes them into a powerful and highly impressive portrayal of contemporary paralysis.
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