Album Review: Weyes Blood Gives You “A Front Row Seat To Earth”
I have reviewed Weyes Blood in concert and described her performance as one that leaves audiences emotionally naked. She has an innate ability to make audiences feel as if they need nothing. This may sound like a strange effect because when you go to singers they usually strike feelings of wanting or needing something from life. Yet, Weyes Blood ‘s Front Row Seat To Earth shows that the material wants and needs of a person has can block them from seeing life is a spiritual journey.
Journey is a perfect theme for Weyes Blood, especially because she has the 70’s positive vibrations that resonated with folk music tales of characters trying to find their place in the world. Front Row Seat To Earth is unabashedly inspired by this era with Weyes Blood’s voice echoing that of a young Joni Mitchell. There will be several moments where you think, you have taken one of your mom’s classic vinyls like, in track “Used To Be” and “Away Above”. Yet, Weyes’ voice has a timeless goodness that transforms the old wisdom of her music into modern sage for Millennials.
Front Row Seat To Earth is all about observance. It’s soft string arrangements and aerial melodies make you feel like you are truly in a spaceship looking down on earth trying to figure out how humans live. I have never had a record give the feeling of wonder towards others lives, quite like Front Row Seat To Earth. She has managed to put into music the stares and mental drifts we have all had when we peer into building windows or look at people walking in the park and wonder “What is your life like?”. Therefore, on the sound of this record, Weyes Blood has created a precious image of seeing the world as if you were amongst the stars: in distant enlightenment. Yet, her voice can be considered its own planet.
Yes, I know that I just compared a young woman’s voice to a planet but I make that comparison with utter love. I call Weyes Blood’s voice another planet because it feels like a carrier other life forms and plush landscapes that, though watchful of Earth, can’t be found here. When she sings you feel stripped to the bareness of your spirit, which explains my otherworldly analogy. When you put away all the masks and take down every brick of your emotional walls, you might as well be a different person from a different world. Thus, the irony of Weyes Blood’s voice and lyrics is that in observing the rawness of humanity she reveals layers to being human, that are so ignored, they seem foreign.
Front Row Seat To Earth is an album for those that want to be transported by music, and intimately taught about their own humanity. Weyes Blood has created a record that sonically reveals to listeners the ups and downs of being human with a gentle clarity that they have yet to personally find. This may be a bold statement, but, frankly, not many artists/people are as clear in voice and un-judgmental human analysis like Weyes Blood. This young woman has discovered that the material wants and needs we have cannot compensate nor replace the spiritual ones we deserve. For Weyes, life should be felt, even when it is rough, because we must go through darkness to achieve our rightful lightness. Hence, I recommend this record for anyone that is courageous enough to confront the good and bad sentiments that come with being human. For More Information On Weyes Blood and To Buy Front Row Seat To Earth On October 21, Click Here.
Do You Need My Love: While it may take a lot of self-reflection to receive another’s love, it takes a lot of courage to offer love to someone else. Weyes Blood has a beautifully melancholic voice that makes you feel like you are naked before a mirror but willing to analyze your being with maturity, acceptance, love, and bravery.
Used To Be: this track feels like a song you would hear on the radio in 1971 as you drove your Chevy Impala aimlessly around with friends. It captures the nostalgia we all feel when we think of our more innocent, youthful days, and does it through a folky drum-guitar hook.
