Titanic rising again
This is yet another one of those cases where everyone in the know knew — but I quite obviously didn’t. And it’s even more ironic, because I personally know people who were in the know and I didn’t think to ask them. Or didn’t listen when they discussed it, either way.
What I’m talking about here is the great rising star that is Weyes Blood.
The reason I even found out about her was because I attended the Paris Pitchfork festival a couple of weeks ago. And I only did that because my brother quite literally harassed us into going. And go we did, for a day. That’s also because my wife noticed that Weyes Blood was performing, which seemed like a good enough reason for her to go. So I assumed she was right.
Then I actually Spotifyed Mrs Blood. And could not understand, for the life of me, how I didn’t know about her already. There are few artists who genuinely surprise me these days. It may have to do with the overall quality of contemporary music, or the fact that I’m not a big fan of autotune (those two arguments are somewhat intertwined) or else that I’m just getting too old to rightfully appreciate new outings by young and upcoming artists anymore. Although I do like Billie Eilish, proving I’m not a complete fool. And that I do own a radio.
In any event, Weyes Blood surprised me from the get go. In the best possible way: not only did she sing beautifully, but her music was intricate, subtle, nuanced, however you wanna call it that does not involve autotune. Everything from the melody (always the key to any great piece of music, as far as I’m concerned) to arrangements (sounded like the best Sinatra / Miles Davis albums, if you ask me) to the clever mix of old school pop and new production sounds… it was quite simply a great listen.
Then I discovered the reason my wife knew about her: she’s been at it for years, launching her career on the New York indie label Mexican Summer. That a friend of ours, who DJ’ed at our wedding, worked at for years. He’s the one who told my wife about her, literally years ago. And I, meanwhile, remained quite oblivious about the whole thing until that fateful Pitchfork festival. Good thing it happened.
A couple of interesting things about Weyes Blood:
She was always great — well, at least as an adult. One of her earlier hits, “Seven words”, is great proof of that. Released in 2016, it already features everything that’s great about Blood: perfect vocals, a melody I would never have been able to write on my best day, and great production all around. You could feel the musical maturity of the artist, who was then barely 27. Granted, some of the greats had died by that age, but most are still working out their sound. Especially if it’s as refined as hers.
She only got better.
The third and last single from her latest album, “Movies”, shows as much. The sheer grandiosity of the song calls for even stronger vocals, which she has, more arrangements, which she got, and a touch of crazy in a way the late Freddie Mercury got us accustomed to. You know, the kind where you can actually feel that the artist is going all the way on their creative route to create something that is as original as can be. Original and complex, as every great piece of art always is.
In short, the young Weyes Blood is still very much only at the beginning of her career. And, given her trajectory thus far, I can fairly predict that she will go to even greater things. And that’s saying something.
PS. She was insanely good live too. Which is interesting, because complex stuff doesn’t always fare well live, especially at a festival. She managed to adapt her songs, adding a somewhat harder edge while maintaining the subtlety of the melodies and arrangements. And that voice…