Gracie Hadland on January 23rd, 2019

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In the cover for her new single, Natalie Mering, who performs as Weyes Blood, gazes out the window of a teen-looking bedroom (posters on the purple wall, stereo, plush carpet) washed in a glow looking as if she is ready to leave this world and ascend elsewhere. Slightly levitating, Mering seems to be underwater or in space yet looks perfectly poised as everything around her is one breeze away from crumbling.

This image captures what it feels like to listen to her new single, “Andromeda,” just out on Sub Pop. Mering’s voice carries you somewhere extraterrestrial while everything around you slowly falls away. She exhales deep bellows reminiscent of a 1970s Baez or Mitchell, but her ethereal voice is grounded in this world even if it suggests another. The slide guitar flows around her vocals as she repeatedly challenges her subject, “If you think you can save me I dare you to try,” the dare differing each verse. Weyes Blood honors the folk sounds of 1970s Los Angeles without slipping into a tempting nostalgia for that glamour.

To listen to this song on your headphones while walking through a city or in your car with your windows rolled up is to embody Mering’s character on the cover, submerged in water reaching for that window, craving ascension.

The song, her first new music since 2016, was co-produced by Mering and Jonathan Radio (Foxygen). Weyes Blood’s fourth record will be out this spring.

||| Stream: “Andromeda”

||| Live: Weyes Blood performs April 4 at the Masonic Lodge at Hollywood Forever. Tickets.

Gracie Hadland is a new contributor to Buzz Bands LA. She is a writer living in Los Angeles. Follow her on twitter @disgraciee.