Weyes Blood - The Innocents ((CD))

There exists a terrifying film called The Innocents, starring Deborah Kerr, released in 1961. Its based on a play of the same name, which in turn was an adaptation of Henry James novella The Turn Of The Screw. All versions involve a governess hired to care for two young children, who may or may not be possessed by the ghosts of the couple who looked after them in the past, a couple whose deviant nature destroyed the lives around them (including their own). Those whove had occasion to watch the film version havent easily forgotten the opening credits: as you sit in complete darkness (or some reasonable facsimile thereof & cmon, work with us), and well before the studio logo is displayed, you hear a little girls voice, unaccompanied, singing these words: \n \nWe lay, my love and I, beneath the weeping willow. \nBut now alone I lie and weep beside the tree. \nSinging "O Willow Waly" by the tree that weeps with me. Singing "O Willow Waly" till my lover return to me. \nWe lay, my love and I, beneath the weeping willow. \nA broken heart have I. \nO willow, I die& \nO willow, I die. \n \nThe films credits roll on, screen right, as the image of Ms. Kerr, praying and sobbing, is superimposed on the left. That sequence puts you on the back foot and keeps you there, even as you begin to doubt the events of the story that follows, lingering on like mist, heavy and earthbound. Henry James wouldve wanted it that way. Tired of the ways in which authors had depicted the supernatural, the author extrapolated their evil nature out of elements youd never expect, or in his own words, the strange and sinister embroidered on & the normal and easy. And his notions of how to represent these tropes have since fed into our familiar understanding of how suspense works as a narrative device in the centuries that followed. James made us all more suspicious; where we find beauty and sadness, we often assume that it has been influenced by some spectre whose bent will keeps its presence lingering from beyond the grave, whose sorrows have curdled into vengeance. We walk alone in wintery woods, past the frozen lake, wind whipping through the bare branches, and we cannot help but wonder if we are truly alone, if there is any creature that could take us down with it every time we hear the dead leaves rustle or the snapping of a dried branch, or if its all in our minds. The Innocents is the name of the second album by Natalie Mering, who performs as Weyes Blood. Its ten songs confront us with their truths. There is the beauty of Ms. Merings voice, whose strength across two vocal registers reveals a vulnerability belied by some of her lyrics. On all but one of the songs on The Innocents, her voice is the dominant quality, tracked in multi-part harmonies with herself. There is the semblance of training in her voice to get her to where she can sing today, or any number of devices we as listeners impose upon her, because most of us are not privy to a vocalist of such rare c

• Handling Note: **Please allow an additional 72 hours for this item's shipment.**
• Internal ID: JITRE
• Released: 10/21/14
• Genre: Rock
• Format: CD