Children of the Empire

"Children of the Empire" is a song recorded by American singer-songwriter Weyes Blood, included on her fifth studio album And in the Darkness, Hearts Aglow, released on November 18, 2022, by Sub Pop. The song was released to U.S. adult album alternative radio on April 10, 2023, as the fourth and final single from the album. It was included in the set list of her In Holy Flux Tour.

Promotion
Weyes Blood performed "Children of the Empire", along with other songs from And in the Darkness, Hearts Aglow (2022), at concerts across different cities of the United States, including San Diego.

Critical reception
The song was named as "ambitious" by NME. According to DIY Magazine, the title of the track feels "lifted from the dusty cover of a forgotten LP of ballads". While reviewing the album, Alexis Petridis of The Guardian wrote: "And in the Darkness, Hearts Aglow gently bombards you with one fantastic tune after another: [...] the deceptively carefree-sounding 'Children of the Empire', surrounded by a complex, Brian Wilson-inspired arrangement that ultimately involves everything from tubular bells to a tuba, but never sounds overwrought". For the same newspaper, critic Kitty Empire stated that the keyboards on the track "sound like a sour fairground calliope".

Tom Taylor of Far Out imagined the "celestial crescendo" of the song as a moment that "make cinematic seem like an adjective fit to describe a church fête". The Fader's Raphael Helfand described "Children of the Empire" as an "upbeat song dealing with heavy stuff", and Weyes Blood, in an interview for the magazine, stated that she wanted it to be "an anthem". The New York Times reviewer Lindsay Zoladz praised the song's "gorgeous vocal melody" and the singer's "impassioned performance" that "lift it beyond its limitations". Sophia McDonald for The Line of Best Fit explained that "lengthier tracks like [the song] pass by with ease, not feeling like six minutes".