Picture this: Your sister, who you’ve shared a room with all your life and consider to be one of your closest friends and confidants, leaves for college. It’s the night after you dropped her off and you turn over to look at her empty bed next to you and are filled with an overwhelming sense of grief. It’s not the first time your sister has been away, leaving you with the room to yourself, but it’s the first time in your life when you don’t know exactly when she’ll be back. To comfort yourself you put on your headphones and try out this new album, Titanic Rising, that was recommended to you a week ago. Next thing you know, you’re sobbing uncontrollably.
Titanic Rising by Weyes Blood truly changed my life that night. The lyrics and emotions of a song have never touched me as much as the songs on this album. It was exactly what I needed at that time in my life, and it is now my go-to when going through transitional periods in my life.
The album’s opening song, “A Lot’s Gonna Change” is such a wild opener. You are immediately launched into full emotional turmoil as Laura Mering (Weyes Blood) muses about life drastically changing and having to cope with things that you don’t want to confront. It’s grieving a life that you once lived.
She sings,
“Born in a century lost to memories
Falling trees, get off your knees
No one can keep you down
If your friends and your family
Sadly don’t stick around
It’s high time you’ll learn to get by.”
Like please… let me breathe first!
The next track on the album, “Andromeda,” is perhaps her most well known, and rightly so. Over its whimsical instrumentals, she delivers blow after blow of devastating lyrics.
She opens singing,
“Running from my own life now
I’m really turning some time
Looking up to the sky for something I may never find.”
When I shared this album with my older sister (who I was obviously referencing in the opening of this article) she was quick to share her praise of this song specifically.
Overall, It’s hard for me to pick my favorites on this album because I regard the whole album as a masterpiece. However, my most replayed of this album have to be “Something to Believe” and “Picture me Better.”
“Something to Believe” portrays Mering’s existential thoughts about her life due to the state of the world because of issues like climate change and political unrest. All I can say to that is girl, same.
I’ve had many conversations with friends and family members of the underlying hopelessness that sinks into my life now, and how my happiness is never as fulfilling as it once was because my future is so uncertain due to circumstances outside of my influence.
In the chorus Mering sings,
“I just lay down and cry
The waters don’t really go by me
Give me something I can see
Something bigger and louder than the voices in me
Something to believe.”
I tear up every time.
Finally, “Picture me Better” is focused on Mering’s experience grappling with the death of her friend. Though I have been fortunate enough to not have to go through a goodbye as final as that, when I first listened to this song I was grappling with the new absence of my big sister.
Reflecting on those feelings now, this grief over the ending of a past life only continues to grow. Now I have moved away from home for college as well, where I not only constantly miss my older sister, but my younger sister as well.
This summer will especially be different because my older sister has officially moved out for the year. Yes, she will be back home some weeks this summer, but life will never again be as simple as the years us three sisters all lived under the same roof during our childhood.
To those grappling with similar feelings of melancholy, you must give Titanic Rising a listen. Yes, you will sob, but you will also find peace in the clarity you reach after the emotional release this album puts you through.
Thank you, Weyes Blood, for this life changing album, I’ve never felt more seen.