Titanic Rising


Titanic Rising is the fourth studio album by American musician Weyes Blood, released on April 5, 2019 by Sub Pop. On January 17, 2019, Weyes Blood released the album's first single, "Andromeda". A second single, "Everyday", was released along with an accompanying self-directed music video on February 12, 2019.
The album received universal acclaim from critics, garnering an aggregate score of 91/100 on Metacritic.

Production

Recording

Following the release of Front Row Seat to Earth, Natalie Mering signed with Sub Pop in 2017. Titanic Rising was recorded in 2018 over a three month period at Sonora Studios in Los Angeles and was produced by Jonathan Rado. The album named after the RMS Titanic and the 1997 film based on the ship's sinking, a film that had a profound impact on Mering when she was younger.

Music and lyrics

The album's music has been described as soft rock with influences from 1970s artists such as Joni Mitchell and The Carpenters, as well as chamber pop.
The opening track "A Lot's Gonna Change," a song that Mering described as setting the overall theme of Titanic Rising, deals with the yearning for a return to the simpler times of childhood, as well as learning how to cope with changes without being bogged down with hopelessness. "Andromeda," inspired by the galaxy and the mythological figure of the same name, deals with finding love in a world of distractions and past disappointments and features a LinnDrum. "Everyday" has an upbeat melody and lyrics about the struggles of online dating.
Mering described the title track, an instrumental, as an interlude between the album's first half, which deals with hope and love, and the second half, which deals with "an existential sub-zone." "Movies" features synth arpeggios in the first half before giving way to strings. Lyrically, the song deals with Mering's disillusionment with movies as a teenager and how she felt they lied to her. "Picture Me Better" is about a friend that committed suicide while Mering was making the album, while the finale track on the album, "Nearer to Thee," is a reference to the alleged final song the band on the RMS Titanic played before the ship sank.

Artwork

The album cover features Mering submerged in an underwater bedroom. The cover was photographed by Brett Stanley in a Long Beach, California pool. Commenting on the cover's meaning, Mering stated that she thought of water as symbolizing the subconscious, and that a bedroom lives in this subconscious space due to its role as "a safe and imaginative space" that shapes people's beliefs and identities.

Release

On January 17, 2019, Weyes Blood released the album's first single, "Andromeda". A second single, "Everyday", was released along with an accompanying self-directed music video on February 12, 2019. The album's third single, "Movies," was released along with an accompanying self-directed music video on March 19, 2019.

Critical reception

Titanic Rising received widespread acclaim from contemporary music critics. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the album has an average score of 91 based on 26 reviews, indicating "universal acclaim".
AllMusic praised the record, stating that "she underscores enormously orchestrated pop songs with eerie experimental ambience, imagining a dreamworld where Joni Mitchell's late-'70s output was produced by Brian Eno." Quinn Moreland, writing for Pitchfork, described the album as "a grand, sentimental ode to living and loving in the shadow of doom" and "her most ambitious and complex work yet". Dazed Digital stated that, "pairing a rich, 70s soft-rock palette with rippling undercurrents of dread, it already feels like one of the year's best records, and a poignant document on what it feels like to inhabit this particular moment in time."
PublicationAccoladeRank
AllMusicAllMusic Best of 2019
Consequence of SoundTop 50 Albums of 201926
DazedThe 20 Best Albums of 20194
The GuardianThe 50 Best Albums of 201910
NMEThe 50 Best Albums of 20199
NPRThe 25 Best Albums of 201914
PasteThe 50 Best Albums of 20191
PitchforkThe 50 Best Albums of 20199
PopMattersThe 70 Best Albums of 201938
SlantThe 25 Best Albums of 201918
StereogumThe 50 Best Albums of 201917
Treble ZineThe Top 50 Albums of 201911
UproxxThe Best Albums of 20194
ViceThe 100 Best Albums of 201920

PublicationAccoladeRank
PitchforkThe 200 Best Albums of the 2010s143

Track listing

Personnel

Credits adapted from liner notes.
Musicians
Technical personnel
Artwork