And In The Darkness, Hearts Aglow [Cassette]

本名 Natalie Mering 的復古女伶 #WeyesBlood，自上一張《Titanic Rising》獲得巨大的成功後，以相同的美聲呼應了疫情時代的狀態，也延續專輯概念帶來了新作《And In The Darkness, Hearts Aglow》。

鐵達尼號沈沒入汪洋黑暗後，我們彷彿在消逝的火焰之中尋找餘燼，摸索命運與其意義，在單曲〈God Turn Me Into A Flower〉，Weyes Blood與實驗電子創作才子 Oneohtrix Point Never 的 Daniel Lopatin 合作，講述了水仙的神話：對池中倒影的痴迷導致主角餓死並失去了除了對自我的迷戀之外的所有知覺——他沒有意識到世間最熱切渴望的東西最終竟是自己，上帝把他變成了隨宇宙搖曳的柔韌花朵。

這個故事可以說是Weyes Blood對於支離破碎的世界，那份疏離感迫切需要聯繫的提問，我們紓寫這麼多的情歌，相戀的人卻不在一起，而四處尋找解答，卻唯獨沒看見自己，Weyes Blood為這張專輯帶來了柔軟又堅定的註腳與意象：她胸膛那熾熱的希望之光，在這個黑暗的時代中閃耀，如那朵水仙花描繪了生死與自然循環的微妙旅程。
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 has 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 is Not Just Me, It is 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 does not 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 does not 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 towards an uncertain fate. I see the heart as a guide, with an emanation of hope, shining through in this dark age. Somewhere along the line, we lost the plot on who we are. Chaos is 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 is the beginning of the nuanced journey towards understanding the natural cycles of life and death, all over again.

Thoughts and Prayers,
Natalie Mering (aka Weyes Blood)