Natalie Mering is Weyes Blood, a dreamy folk project that channels the more atemporal aspects of our lives. Mering, who just released her latest album, Front Row Seat to Earth, regularly juxtaposes nature with nostalgia, tying forgotten emotion to a past removed from time—or at least so far gone that it might as well be timeless. Such is the case in her latest music video for "Used to Be."
"Used to Be" is cast in the lo-fi veneer that coats many of her videos, courtesy of director and frequent collaborator, Laura-Lynn Petrick. Shot in Southern California entirely on Super 8mm film, Petrick's video oscillates between the Salton Sea and the Cabazon Dinosaurs, and amidst lakes, stalagmites, and said dinosaurs, Mering's majestic alto soars in easy glissandos. “You used to be the one,” she croons.
But it's a sentiment whose romance is tempered by the "one" she's singing to (in this case a giant T-Rex), and her electric blue power suit sheds further light on her only semi-serious regard for time and love. Still, all that said, Mering is a halcyon reverie. She has the enigmatic command and emotive brood of Joni Mitchell, and Front Row Seat to Earth, out now via Mexican Summer, shouldn't be missed.
