Front Row Seat to Earth

In this album for insane times, Mering has attained universal connectedness while allowing us into her own excruciatingly cathartic purview, no easy feat.

She commits more fully to the world she’s building here, though 2014’s sprawling rock rumination The Innocents is not without its highlights.

Mering wrings out so much emotion from her voice that these songs burst with human vitality – and that is the main thing to take away from here.

Front Row Seat to Earth ... turns down some of the lonely static and tape warp of previous full length The Innocents and finds a broader folk balladry imbued with Laurel Canyon breeze that’s still tempered by contemporary turmoil.

Front Row Seat to Earth might not be the most immediate record released this year, but it never turns its back on you. Accessible without ever being simple, it's one worth getting into, even if the way is labyrinthine.

In an age where everything must be louder than a Michael Bay flick hearing true sonic range is a rare delight, every instrument and backing vocal helping build a gentler whole.

Front Row Seat To Earth--intimate and enveloping, romantic and psychedelic--marks a significant progression in Mering's increasingly impressive career.

Moving towards the sounds of'70s AM gold, with words of existential Gen Y dread, Mering heralds an expansion of her sonic universe.

Here singer/songwriter Natalie Mering continues to refine her psychedelic folk-pop sound, placing less of an emphasis on experimentation and spotlighting her stunning voice and introspective, poetic lyrics.

The lyrics are divine, and when it’s good (‘Seven Words’, ‘Do You Need My Love’) it is very, very good indeed.

Natalie Mering’s newest release straddles the world we inhabit and the marvels we imagine beyond it.

The apocalypse has found its smoke-voiced sibyl.