Weyes Blood comes out with her vinyl debut, “The Outside Room,” on NNF.  This is also her first full-length. Her real name, by the way, is Natalie Weyes Bluhd, but uses a new spelling to get a wicked moniker. She is one of the best female artists to release this year, as far as I’m concerned. She’s like Pocahaunted (obligatory to drop that name), Mateah Baim, Metallic Falcons, Fielded, and Zola Jesus all rolled into one. I think she has it down more than all those acts—oops, did I really say that? Yes, I really did. No offense to those other ladies, but Weyes Blood offers some of the best female ghost-folk kind of gems that I’ve ever heard. She truly brings it with deathly lingering chants that get pulled through the drifting effects and instrumentation. Beautiful lo-fi strings, piano, peculiar percussion, etc. all glisten dimly against a rolling backdrop of incorporeal otherworldly textures and dimensions. Her voice is so freaking hauntingly gorgeous. She really has a way of connecting with me through her phantasmic siren calls. An eerie, swooning, and swathing listening experience, yet so peaceful and gentle. It’s like accidentally disturbing an Indian burial ground, but all the spirits roused from their earthly slumber are the ladies of the tribe. Instead of being vengeful for your lack of courtesy and unintentional desecration, they calmly approach you with feminine humility and maternal love. So wraithlike but so tender too. Each track is amazing!
Natalie is also quite the poet. Included is an 11″ x 17″ lyric sheet with some art on it too. Check it out:
This ones bad
I’m alone in everything
Since you been comin round
Your eyes a sea of
The mighty sound
Take me out
Of the swamp of emotion
My name does shout
To be rid of you
In the morning sun
We’ve just begun
And I
WATCH THE WATER
Rise, what can be done
This one’s bad enough
And all fire birds sing like those
WATERFALLS OF
YOUR MIRROR
So high and unclear
Don’t fear the cursed dawn
Let it drag on
I’ll sing you baby
That’s some lyrical genius in my opinion. Style, talent, and creativity describe the wonder that is Weyes Blood. This is a record that cannot be missed! Make it a priority to put this at the top of your TO BUY list. Simply stunning and unfailingly faultless. Great LP cover with typically crazy collage art from NNF. Limited to 480.
10/10
