Weyes Blood to me has flown under my radar for a while now. I've heard her name passed around from time to time, and I know she's worked with Ariel Pink in the past. On her first album, "The Outside Room". This was seriously a bizarre album, with Weyes Blood's angelic performance usually floating directly above these absolutely chaotic, disturbing psychedelic passages. This was actually a pretty difficult album to really get into, but there was something absolutely gorgeous but even more so dark that I couldn't say no to. Her follow up album was pretty stunning as well. On "The Innocents", Weyes Blood went with a more straightforward sound in her brand of folk/baroque pop. It was much easier to assess. but at the same time remained just as haunting and absolutely gorgeous. There was also a serious old time beauty to all of this, especially on tracks like "Summer". That being said, I still wasn't totally sold on Weyes Blood, I thought she had some really fantastic elements but still a handful of these tracks went on FAR too long and went nowhere. I honestly though wasn't nearly as into her big breakout album of 2016, "Front Row Seat To Earth". Yea it was still just as gorgeous and dreamy, but I wasn't into the fact that she dropped most of her folk elements for a much more Baroque Pop sound. So here we are with this new collaborative EP, to be honest this is probably the last thing I expected out of these two but let's see what they're up to.
This EP starts off pretty gigantic with the explosive “Tears Of Fire”. The track starts off with an airy, folky sound with some psychedelic undertones. The atmosphere is pretty stunning, but whenever Weyes Blood is present on a track this airy atmosphere is almost certain to follow. What’s most shocking here however, is just how well Weyes Blood and Ariel Pink play off each other so well. On the verses here, Ariel brings out some character in Weyes Blood’s sometimes monotonous delivery, while she in return brings out how nice Ariel’s voice can sound when he’s being serious. We tend to forget this, but Ariel Pink is more than just Indie Pop’s resident goofball. Ariel’s usual quirky personality is all over this however, and Weyes Blood as her performance goes on makes this track more and more ethereal. For me, this was a “one time listen & love” track, everything here is just so overpowering. Every element to these verses build up towards this absolutely explosive release of a chorus. As Weyes Blood get’s older I’d swear her voice just keeps getting better and more stunning, her performance here is absolutely jaw dropping. Overall, I have nothing but great things to say about “Tears Of Fire”, it’s just a fantastic Psychedelic Pop song. There’s absolutely a very retro feel to this all, and I mean VERY retro, like medieval retro, and I can’t help but eat it all up. As far as singles of the year goes, I know it’s early to tell but I wouldn’t be surprised if this ended up on my list. Up Next is “Daddy Please Give A Little Time To Me”, which right off the bat has a little more of a spacey feel to it. This one is centered almost completely around Weyes Blood, which to me is a little disappointing, mostly because I thought they played off each other very well on that first track. “Daddy Please Give A Little Time To Me” is a little too breezy for my liking. Weyes Blood sounds incredible and all, and her vocal performances are stunning, but everything else here seriously doesn’t click with me. At the end of the day, “Daddy Please Give A Little Time To Me” sounds like just a Weyes Blood track, which is fine and all, but Ariel’s presence is barely felt. And I know as a collaborative project both artists aren’t going to be consistently featured, but still, their collaborations on that first track made me want so much more. “Morning After” is up next, and is certainly a slight improvement. The production however on the EP needs to step it up a bit. I get that Ariel and Weyes Blood are going for that retro, Low Fi sound which Ariel HAS done plenty of in the past. But here on this EP, it’s not done as well as you would hope, at least I’ve certainly heard it done better with other artists. Weyes Blood’s performance here is much more solid and she sounds a little more down to earth, literally. Now leading up to the release of this EP I was making joke after joke about the cover looking medieval. Like I said earlier, they go seriously hard on that sound, and that atmosphere is something that works about this EP magnificently. There’s a huge mysticism sound to this EP that is certainly fueled by Weyes Blood’s performance. Strangely enough though, once again on “Morning After” Ariel’s presence is barely felt, outside of some production I’m sure. So once again we’re just sitting here with a Weyes Blood solo track basically, but this one is a whole lot more pleasant and well structured. Finally, we come to the much more psychedelic finale of “On Another Day”. Strangely enough, as much more psychedelic this feels, it’s also a whole lot more current sounding, this track isn’t drowning helplessly in that heavy old school production. Ariel is back in a big way, and with these lyrics here he’s sounding more animated than ever. Granted, I haven’t heard anything new from Ariel in about two years so just hearing him on this EP is just so pleasant. I love the hazy feel to “On Another Day”, and that very mystic vibe from earlier is back with a vengeance thanks to those mysterious synths. Vocally, these two are doing absolute wonders for one another, making these tracks some of the most vibrant performances I’ve heard from either one of them. It’s not as peppy as Ariel’s usual work, and it’s not as cloudy as Weyes Blood’s usual work, this is just some nice middle ground. My only real issue with this EP is that I want more, A LOT more.
Rating : 7.1/10
Overall Thoughts: This is an alright EP from Ariel Pink and Weyes Blood. It seems a little incomplete, this EASILY could have had a two more tracks on here for us to enjoy. But as far as a collaboration record goes, this is solid. These two completely different songwriters bring out a lot of fantastic elements in one another, I just hope we get to hear more from this duo in the future.
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