Spotlight On: WEYES BLOOD

ABOUT THIS WEEK’S SHERO IN THE SPOTLIGHT:

We kick off 2023 with a critically acclaimed artist whose new album arrived just six weeks before the end of the year, but still managed to make it onto nearly every year-end best-of list (including my own), and in some cases at the very top. Natalie Mering’s fifth album as Weyes Blood, And In The Darkness, Hearts Aglow, is the second in a trilogy which she began in 2019 with the universally acclaimed Titanic Rising. A multi-instrumentalist, songwriter, and producer with a voice that often draws comparisons to Karen Carpenter, and songs that sound right at home next to Harry Nilsson’s, Natalie was born in Southern California, and grew up singing in choirs, before picking up the guitar at age eight. After a few moves, her family settled in the Philadelphia area, and Natalie's musical interest veered to noise rock and experimental music. Starting out in the underground music scene in the mid-2000’s, Natalie released her first album as Weyes Blood, The Outside Room, in 2011. Each album progressively evolved sonically into what it is today, but as you are about to hear, Natalie Mering’s dual nature, and exploration of light and darkness, creation and destruction, clarity and dissonance, and yes, feminine and masculine, is always present, in constant conversation with itself, and is what makes her brilliant creativity all at once modern and nostalgic.

SHERO BIRTHDAYS: We celebrate the SHERO birthdays of Jenny Lewis and First Aid Kit’s Klara Söderberg on 1/8, and Pat Benatar on 1/10!