The second installment of Weyes Blood’s own baroque trilogy, ‘And In The Darkness, Hearts Aglows’ shares sentiments of finding love amidst the doom that looms ahead. It’s consistently quieter and languid but never comes close to reaching the remarkable heights of its predecessor. Might be a sophomore slump, where few pieces shimmer amidst the duller specks on the surface.
Even after the isolation crumbling the world all over, Weyes Blood finds herself yearning for a deeper connection, hoping that there is something to be found within the aftermath. Weyes Blood has always fascinated herself with shades of retro-leaning pop ever since she started her artistic waves in the 2010s. Starting off with ‘The Outside Room’ which already painted her curiosity in this brand of retro pop and folk as she establishes her signature lyrical tensions that close inwards and outwards. She continued further in albums like ‘The Innocents’ which gives clarity to her rougher beginnings of lo-fi pop and folk while still tiptoeing to yearning, weary-eyed observations of the struggles that shape her, and ‘Front Row Seat to Earth’ nestles her presence to baroque stillness, not exactly fully grasping the grandness that’s going to change her momentum entirely. Said momentum after that now floods her with praise and acclaim as ‘Titanic Rising’ stands her ground, the baroque lushness now surrounding her guiding voice and that scope of grand, sometimes cosmic yearning of love and reflection settles even deeper, rippling outward in the waters.
That being said, Weyes Blood’s strand of baroque grandeur hasn’t always found itself break through to be at its most captivating. Even with ‘Titanic Rising’, there’s something that even after wading through its lush scope for 4 years now, doesn’t come off as enrapturing. It may be due to just how the compositions are so tasteful and so ornate that it doesn’t allow themselves to actually shoot to the stars and crave that romantic touch.
After the optimistic yearning for ‘Titanic Rising’ amidst an impending doom to the world comes ‘And In The Darkness, Hearts Aglow’. A subsequent follow-through of Titanic Rising and a second of the trilogy that Weyes Blood has announced, it now centers itself on observing the tragedies and struggles around it, especially with the isolation that takes place 3 years ago.
In this album, Weyes Blood observes and reflects upon how the struggles of the tragedies and isolation have affected her and the people around her, her voice still provides a pristine presence as she weaves through baroque instrumentation that makes these songs place an epic languish. ‘It’s Not Just Me, It’s Everybody’ centers on the effects of isolation that block everyone from allowing themselves to create interactions with other people and themselves (“Living in the wake of overwhelming changes / We've all become strangers / Even to ourselves”). She muses through these thoughts with grace and solemn presence, her voice gliding across the shimmering keys and synths, stumbling grooves, gleaming violin lines, and twinkling harp notes that lay across the choruses. The introspection of the past few years on ‘The Worst Is Done’ chimes along, observations of the isolation and how it has cracked everyone up magnified to Weye’s own lens (“It's been a long, strange year / Everyone's sad they lost what they thought they had / We lost our voices / Can't keep with all the changes”). This musing is accompanied by calming soft rock instrumentation, all brimming with developed bass and drum grooves, glinting synth backdrops, and Weyes Blood’s own perceptive vocal lines on the main melody and the backing vocals.
This context accentuates the tragic romantics that Weyes Blood finds herself floating onto, now treating it as if they’re epics of love and heartbreak. Songs like ‘Children of the Empire’ and ‘Grapevine’ are great examples of this - elevating the magnitude of its pathos as the former song brings along pounding drums, ethereal keys and strings, and smoother acoustic and bass lines to create a big impact of the grand dramatics on a display of reclaiming control, freedom, and love amidst the world that is against them (“Children understand that they pay for their sins / Seize control of what they made / Before we all fade away”). Then the latter song grasps the complicated situation of a couple breaking apart even despite the yearning that one still has for the other, all swept up with acoustic and bass strums, shuffling drums, dramatic windswept strings, synths, and woodwinds to top it all off. ‘Hearts Aglow’ taps into similar epic tapestries as well, finding love amidst the world being crushed over with an eye for the optimistic, Weyes Blood’s vocal yearning is at its core as she sings with sharper presence as the harmonies back her up alongside smoother percussion and bass grooves, sweeping synths and violins.
However, even with Weyes Blood updating her baroque soundscape and finding herself centered in the aftermath of dooming events, the record does not find itself reaching great heights. The flaws aren’t tied to the ornate presentation of the record, but rather to the execution of that tragic expanse and the song structures and compositions. While the attempt to wade through the vulnerable effects of what has been surmised in the past few years has resulted in some good tender and emotionally beautiful moments, mostly due to the baroque and soft rock instrumentation that gives them enough melodic fullness, when it does try to come off a little more transcendent and unstable, then that’s where it stumbles. ‘God Turn Me Into a Flower’ with its choral-like mantras and organ instrumentation could’ve worked effectively, but the mythological scope that might be connected to the overall themes of the record in contrast with the lingering pace, and the odd outro courtesy of Oneohtrix Point Never glitch out just don’t come together fruitfully. And then there’s ‘Twin Flame’ with its fuzzier percussion lines that ends up being clunky at most, especially when the melody lines end up looping around in a dull manner.
And speaking of lingering, almost too understated melodies and structures, the album has way too many of those moments that the grandness comes off muted at most. This affects most of the songs to feel way too stagnated due to how they’re paced or how the structure close to the very end is stifled a little bit due to the needless interludes (The progression of ‘And In The Darkness’ - ‘Twin Flame’ - ‘In Holy Flux’ comes to mind). And while it may feel a little more consistent in terms of instrumental breadth and tone, there’s no song here that reaches the cosmic excellence of ‘Andromeda’ or even the transcending moments of ‘Movies’ from ‘Titanic Rising’ given that a lot of the melodies here just doesn’t cut through the same way.
While the second of the trilogy explores more of the tragic and soul-crumbling isolation and events of the past few years with a heightened sense of yearning for connections and love, that scope is hindered and muted - less remarkable melodies and more lingering structures as well as fumbling attempts to go ambitious make this feel a little bit of a sophomore slump. The instrumental breadth and some attempts of gleaming yearning pieces allow for the record to shine, but it’s only bits and pieces. Now that Weyes Blood has found herself observing and getting in front and center of the chaos that crumbles everyone at bay, the next step afterward is to provide a sense of peace and calm after the storm as soon as she possibly can.
Favorite Tracks: Children Of The Empire, Grapevine, The Worst Is Done
Least Favorite Track: Twin Flame