The folk artist, Weyes Blood, will release a new EP titled Cardamom Times on October 9th via Mexican Summer. In the meantime, the singer has given us taste of “Cardamom.”
Diverging from the studio recording of her previous album The Innocents, Natalie Mering, the haunting voice behind Weyes Blood, recorded the EP on tape in her home studio on Rockaway Beach, according to The Fader. As a result, her new single is hauntingly personal.
Her athletic alto sounds more up-close than it has before, cozying up to the mic like it’s another person’s ear as she remembers a departed lover by the cardamom he used to slip in her coffee in the morning. – The Fader
Although a few lilting flutes and organ make a late appearance, “Cardamom” strips away some of the gothic theatricality of The Innocents — it’s mostly just Mering’s golden voice and a lovely blanket of finger-picked guitar, all warmth and longing laid bare. – Stereogum
Singing at once with vulnerability and strength through an austere, multi-layered warble, Mering searches for truth and light while facing the end of something. – Pitchfork
The simplicity behind the sweeping guitar and pan flute suggests a vulnerability that makes each of the track’s elements all the more poignant. Her layered voice is simultaneously robust and whispery, coming in and out of focus as the volume level fluctuates. A result of recording on reel-to-reel tape, the imperfections perpetuate honest nostalgia that, similar to the spice after which the song is named, has a highly identifiable essence. Like cardamom in coffee, less is more.
Tracks on the upcoming EP include:
- Maybe Love
- Take You There
- Cardamom
- In The Beginning
The progression of track titles and the remembrance of love lost expressed in “Cardamom” insinuate that this album, above all, focuses on Mering’s perception of love. The title of the first track “Maybe Love” presents itself as a testament to the possibility of true love. The title of the last track “In the Beginning” offers little closure on whether or not the potential love was lasting. Or perhaps it was lost. Either way, the hypothetical cycle represents something very different from the fairytale love story society pushes. In reality, love doesn’t always result in closure and more importantly, it’s not easily definable. But we’ll only know the real meaning once the EP is released.
Weyes Blood with go on tour alongside Little Wings & Waxahatchee this fall. For tour dates, visit thefader.com. For updates, visit Weyes Blood’s Facebook page.
