Technological restlessness. Narcissism fatigue. A galaxy of isolation. These are the new norms that keep Weyes Blood (aka Natalie Mering) up at night, and the themes at the heart of her latest release, "And in the Darkness, Hearts Aglow." The celestial-influenced folk album is the follow-up to the highly acclaimed Titanic Rising. (Pitchfork, NPR, and The Guardian admiringly called it one of the best of 2019.) While Titanic Rising was an observation of the coming doom, And in the Darkness, Hearts Aglow is about being in the thick of it: a search for an escape hatch that frees us from algorithms and ideological chaos. "We're in a fully functional shitshow," Mering says. "My heart is a glow stick that has been cracked, illuminating my chest in an explosion of seriousness." And in the darkness, Hearts Aglow opens with the wistful, winsome "It's Not Just Me, It's Everybody," a song about the togetherness of all beings, despite the fraying of society around us. "I asked myself a lot of questions when I was writing these songs. Hyper-isolation kept coming up," Mering says. "Our culture relies less and less on people. Something is wrong, and even if the feeling is different for each individual, it's universal. The lullaby-like 'Grapevine' describes the fragmentation of a human connection. The otherworldly lament 'God Turn Me Into A Flower' serves as an allegory to our collective hubris. 'The Worst Is Done' is an ominous warning, underpinned by a deceptively airy pop melody. 'Chaos Is Natural. But so is negentropy, which is the tendency for things to get back in order," she says. "These songs may not be manifestos or solutions, but I know they illuminate the meaning of our disillusionment today."