Revisiting “Titanic Rising” by Weyes Blood - 5 Years Later

Overall Rating: 10/10

On April 5th, 2019, Natalie Mering released her fourth studio album under the Weyes Blood moniker, the first Weyes Blood album I ever listened to and remains one of my favourite albums of all time. The title of this writing calls this a revisitation, although I think calling this a love letter might be a more accurate description. 

This album found me at a strange time in my life. At the time, I was continuously trying to nurse a heart by giving it to the person who broke it in the first place and could feel two longtime friendships deteriorating in the palm of my hand. As they slipped through the cracks of my fingers, I got in the habit of taking long walks during my free period, continuously circling the block or reading on swingsets in the cold. I was not yet in a place to be alone with my thoughts so I filled my ears with music. But isn’t that the best way to listen to an album anyway?

***

Titanic Rising opens with the song you think is going to be the highlight of the album, then goes into the song you really think is going to be the highlight of the album, and then as you keep listening you realize that every song sounds like it’s the highlight of the album. The majority of the tracks are well over four minutes long. The longest track, “Wild Time” is over six minutes long and yet it somehow never feels like it drags. All ten tracks feel cohesive enough to fit within the context of the album like chapters in a novel but still have enough substance to sit on their own and be pulled apart for solo listening. They bleed into each other sonically and thematically but still stick within their confines enough to stay interesting for the duration of the album. 

Songs like “A Lot’s Gonna Change”, “Andromeda”, and “Movies” play on nostalgic memories of being a carefree kid with lyrics like “Born in a century lost to memories, falling trees, get off your knees, no one can keep you down”,  or “The movies I watched when I was a kid, the hopes and the dreams don’t give credit to the real things”. The lyrics are specific and yet universal. The sounds and production are expansive, layered and nuanced. The engineering is sublime throughout, and the instrumentation perfectly complimenting Mering’s warm, rich voice serves the grandness of the album incredibly well. 

Songs like “Something to Believe” achieve a delicate balance of hopelessness and hope with lyrics like “Nobody’s gonna love you the same way” and “I just lay down and cry” contrasted with a plea and determination to change and get better. This hope carries through with “Picture Me Better”, a song about a friend of Mering’s who committed suicide during the writing of the album with lyrics like “Picture us better, we finally found a winter for your sweater, got a brand new big suit of armour, it’s tough, since you left, I’ve grown so much”.

The album is a love letter to living, to society, and the universe despite all its flaws. Although it hasn’t been that long since this album was released, it has aged like a fine cheddar and remains one of the best albums I’ve had the pleasure of listening to, from the lyrics to the melodies to the smooth vocals and perfect production. No notes. My biggest regret was being too young to go to her show at the Horseshoe Tavern in 2019, I should have been born a couple of years earlier or at least have built a time machine by now to experience this album live.

***

If you haven’t heard Titanic Rising by Weyes Blood by now, you should probably get on that.