Natalie Mering watches the world crumble from a pier on her latest album as Weyes Blood, And in the Darkness, Heats Aglow. Her fifth album comes as the second instalment of a trilogy that includes its predecessor, 2019’s Titanic Rising. Whereas Titanic Rising anticipated the onset of doom, And in the Darkness, Hearts Aglow finds her swimming in its deep dark waters.

And in the Darkness, Hearts Aglow ruminates on the loneliness, disconnection, and broken lines of communication symptomatic of our modern time. “I’d give anything to hang / I’ve been without friends / Oh I’ve just been working / For years and I stopped having fun,” she sings on the swelling and ornately arranged “Hearts Aglow,” before pleading for companionship, for someone to “Take me up on that Ferris wheel.” And atop humid, downtempo electronica not unlike Group Rhoda, on “Twin Flame,” she speaks to a kindred spirit: “You’re my twin flame / And you got me so cold / When you pull away,” she sings, emphasizing their shared likeness and dependence on one another.

That Mering isn’t alone out in the world, and she knows it, a comforting thought. “We’re all lost,” she points out on the jaunty, chiming “Children of the Empire.” The floating “It’s Not Me, It’s Everybody” speaks to our collective impermanence and connection, though the latter is a more melancholic take; she describes blending into the background at a party, lost among her surroundings. “We’ve all become strangers / Even to ourselves,” she points out, everyone united in their individual estrangement, before observing that “Oh it’s not just me / I guess it’s everybody / Yes we all bleed the same way / Oh it’s not just me, it’s not just me / It’s not just me, It’s everybody.”

If there’s a positive outcome of these dark times, it’s that some of us, Mering included, are getting back in touch with our multifaceted humanity, our truest selves, even if we’re forced to confront it. “In the dark with no place to hide / ‘Cause we are more than our disguises / We are more than just the pain / And I’m standing here laughing at my shame,” she sings on “Twin Flame.” Here, she also declares that “We are more than just the pain,” a potent reminder we can all cling to like a lifeboat when we’re neck-deep in the murky waters of despair.

But like us all, Mering still experiences moments when her confidence waiver. She carries a lot of skepticism, and rightfully so. Her words throughout “The Worst is Done” belie the breezy song’s title. Here she acknowledges head on that we’re all sad and emerging into a different world, ourselves forever changed: “They say the worst is done / But I think it’s only just begun /… / They say the worst is done / But I think the worst has yet to come.”

Despite that moment of deflated optimism, Mering spends much of And in the Darkness, Hearts Aglow wading through the darkness in search of love, companionship, and a brighter tomorrow, and she does so with certainty that it’s out there. And “The Worst is Done” still carries an assertiveness; her hope is not wholly extinguished. She takes the wheel and steers the ship out of the darkness; she’s hit rock bottom, and there’s nowhere left for her to go but up. And on “Children of the Empire, she inquires, “And when are you gonna be ok / Gain control of what we made / Instead of being afraid.”

Mering pins her hopes on the idea that as naturally as things fall apart, they often fall into the right place, too. Maybe there’s a bit of magical thinking on her part – it would certainly fit the ethereal essence of all her music – but she might be onto something. Hopefully we won’t have to hold on much longer for the final part of the trilogy to see if she’s right.

Pre-order And In The Darkness, Hearts Aglow by Weyes Blood HERE