LISTEN! Ariel Pink & Weyes Blood Collaborate on ‘Tears on Fire’

As West Coast singer-songwriters with a shared sensibility for mood, Natalie and Ariel have been collaborating artists, mutual admirers, and friends for years. Mering appeared as guest vocalist on Pink’s 2013 album Mature Themes, Pink produced the infectious Drugdealer song “Suddenly” featuring Mering. Mering’s third album, Front Row Seat To Earth, was released on Mexican Summer in October 2016.

The atmospheres and auras of these two pop artists assemble as new hues on Myths 002, their distinct voices inexplicably, effortlessly folding into harmony. The four songs capture musicians at play — speak-talking dramatic interludes, twisting up songs strangely before releasing them assuredly in New Romantic resolves.

“Tears on Fire,” a tangled, tumbling folk-prog opus, initiates the collaboration. It starts like a slow warm wind, a mellow California moment, with the talky timbre of Ariel’s voice providing witness. But then, as if a lost refrain by The Sweet, we are blasted with a chorale interjection of Natalie’s flaming voice: “TEARS ON FIRE!” This is an elevated reality, spacious and lush with harmony, perky guitar poking us across the grooved arc of the song. After some twists we come to a clearing — a bridge that charmingly reinterprets the song, stripped to a truth of acoustic guitar and voice.

In “Morning After,” Natalie Mering’s commanding, enchanting voice becomes the storyteller. This narrative takes place in watercolor soft atmosphere, a bed that elevates the mystique of Mering’s singing. The tambourine drives us on a stride, the synth horns surround in wobbly sound, and layers of harmonic voice elope, telling a story about a vampiric bite. Mering’s voice sways with the song’s pull, and after a few drops appear, rains down in tonal sheets.

The collaboration also includes some inspired deep cut covers. “Daddy, Please Give A Little Time to Me” captures the glittery, easy listening vocal pop spirit of The Sisters’ early ’60s sound and feeds it through a blue screen of post-modern experience. Mering sings jaunty lead over a web of bubblegum keys and voice. “On Another Day,” the final cut of Myths 002, curtsies with a cover of ‘80s UK goth rockers Sad Lovers and Giants. This is a charged live performance of a riffy, dark melodic pop anthem featuring guest musicians Connan Mockasin and Andrew VanWyngarden of MGMT.