This week, KEXP is featuring songs written in response to the climate crisis, as selected by DJs John Richards, Cheryl Waters, and Kevin Cole. Tune in this Friday, February 7th as KEXP celebrates International Clash Day; what began as a tribute to The Clash’s music and legacy has evolved into a banner celebration of the issues and message they stood for. The Clash were unapologetically confrontational and champions of the oppressed, always striving for the possibility of a better world. That’s why in 2020 we’re using the holiday to Clash For Climate. More information here.
It already happened
Nothing you want to change more
Heaven found and the lights went down
Everyone's broken now and no one knows just how
We could have all gotten so far from truth
The 1997 movie Titanic was director James Cameron's romanticizing of the real life disaster that happened in 1912. The 2019 album Titanic Rising by singer/songwriter Weyes Blood (real name: Natalie Mering) is a more somber look at the epic tragedy. “It just feels so appropriate for the times, because the ship crashed into an iceberg and because for us now the glaciers and the ice is melting, and instead of the ship sinking, third world countries are sinking,” Mering explained in an interview for Vinyl Me Please. “I feel like it’s kind of ridiculously parallel and the concept of Titanic Rising is more like this slow-moving hubris of man, flooding humanity in a pace that we can’t fully comprehend.”
On her fourth full-length, Mering takes a stark look at climate change, but, she hopes in a way that isn't a total downer. "I want people to think about the reality of what’s going on but also to feel a sense of belonging and hope and purpose," she told Pitchfork. On today's Song of the Day, she hopes to convey this feeling of optimism. “That’s about looking at the sheer masses,” Mering told Flood Magazine, “not as this huge chaotic evil force terrifyingly bigger than we can imagine, but instead looking at it like, ‘What a beautiful hive mind, such a crazy machine.’ I’m talking about being able to connect all this destructive mess with nature and not seeing it as this harsh, cold disconnection, but as an expression of our natures.”
She concludes that she hopes Titanic Rising will inspire listeners to take action. "I hope it gives people hope," she said to Rolling Stone, "and inspires a sense of motivation for somebody to kind of crawl out of whatever millennial burnout, depression state that they may be in, and maybe do something either to change the world or the quality of the lives for the people around them."
