After an overwhelming response to the fifth anniversary edition of Cardamom Times in 2020, Weyes Blood’s (Natalie Mering) warm, elegiac early career record manifests once again in 2021 as an Indie Exclusive Edition on transparent light blue vinyl with purple and maroon splatter, only available from the artist and at independent retail worldwide. The reimagined cover art for Cardamom Times transports the viewer to a desolate, urban paradise during sunset — Jamaica Bay in Queens, New York. A couple is laying on the ground, caught in a comfort beyond time while surrounded by a rusting reality.
Since the EP’s release, Weyes Blood’s Front Row Seat to Earth (Mexican Summer, 2016) and Titanic Rising (Sub Pop, 2019) were both named Best New Albums by Pitchfork, with the latter making multiple Best Albums of 2019 lists, including The Guardian, Pitchfork, and The Independent. Different from these elaborate albums, Cardamom Timeswas recorded onto reel-to-reel tape at Mering’s home studio in Rockaway Beach, New York.
The songs of Cardamom Times demonstrate Mering’s reverence of devotional music and the avant-garde, channeling the domestic hymns of Sybille Baer through the lens of Baltimore’s experimental DIY scene; the minimal, melodic drones of Terry Riley accompanied by the voices of the Sacre Coeur; the confrontational words of Anaïs Nin along with the warm embrace of St. Augustine.
With Cardamom Times, Mering invites listeners into that space of love and longing, struggle and change, surrounded by the decay of time that perpetually embraces us.