Weyes Blood

One Liner:  WTF?  Gentle, soft-focus 70's rock is apparently back.

Wikipedia Genre: Psychedelic pop, baroque pop, psychedelic folk, soft rock
Home: Santa Monica, CA

Poster Position: 15

Weekend One Only

Thoughts: I'm sure there are better examples of this, but I can't think of another artist whose name matches their music less than this gal.  I was expecting some sort of death metal, or at least something tough and angry.  Picking the word "blood" to go in your name just seems to denote a certain level of hardness.  Instead, this is like some straight up 70's soft rock stuff.  Super freaking weird.

Natalie Mering, who is Weyes Blood, apparently took the name from a Flannery O'Connor novel called Wise Blood.  I had not heard of that novel before, but I just might give it a shot.  My theater teacher in high school used to read us stories from A Good Man is Hard to Find, in this deliciously heavy southern accent.  I can still remember the pleasure of hearing him read A Late Encounter With the Enemy, and the way that he said the word Coca-Cola near the end of the story when the kid pushing the wheelchair stops to grab a drink from a machine.  I think I still own that book of shorts, I should probably go read her again.  Amazing writer.  Anyway, that is why she has chosen to have "blood" in her name - not for pagan metal sacrifices.  

Also, FYI, you pronounce the name as "wise blood."

I don't know that I have the musical knowledge to describe who she sounds like, but it has that Laurel Canyon, soft-focus, quiet rock thing going.  Maybe the Carpenters?  It is absolutely beautiful - her voice is lovely and the arrangements are pretty chilled out full-band ballads, lots of piano and brushed drums.  Kind of melancholy, really.  Can make me think of Lana Del Rey, but I think this all sounds more throwback to me.

Four albums, with this year's Titanic Rising rounding out the lot.  2011's The Outside Room is only 6 songs, so maybe that would officially be an EP.  None of the songs on that one push past 100k streams, and I tend to agree with that statement, they're not as good as the newer stuff.  Her most streamed tun isn't even on one of these albums - "Suddenly" is with a band called Drugdealer and appears on their album The End of Comedy.  Such a weird tune - totally sounds lifted straight from the easy listening station in 1977.

When it kicks in at 0:40, it is truly hard to believe this was made in 2016.  Her most popular track on her own albums is "Seven Words," from 2016's Front Row Seat to Earth.  5.4 million streams.

Yeah, lovely tune again.  Sweet mermaid action as well.  Lyrically great too - she does a great job of describing the pains of a breakup with lines like "I want you mostly in the morning, when my soul is weak from dreaming." (although, I have to say, I just spent too long counting on my fingers to establish that the eight words that she says after "these seven words, I say to you one by one," are actually eight words and not seven words).

Its a little like a female Father John Misty.  I have actually enjoyed listening to it all day, even though it seems super weird to be jamming this soft rock action.  I might go see it live.