Album Review: Free Love by Sylvan Esso

The combination of Amelia Meath's vocals, with layers of homely melodies carrying vivid tales of real world people and emotions, and Nick Sanborn's experimental mix of high-energy dance beats and lo-fi production mean Sylvan Esso create a familiar world unlike anything else. All but one of the 10 tracks on 'Free Love' are under 3:20, making it a whirlwind of thrills, almost exactly like is described on the empowering 'Train': "Pop music makes me go insane / Four on the floor and the tracks keep changing". The raw 'Free', meanwhile, is a breathtaking number with a simple keyboard; the crackling of rain sits behind a single layer of Amelia's bare vocals, confessing an emotional response to "what it's like to love everybody".

Full Review >>

The follow-up to 2017's Grammy-nominated What Now, Free Love sees Amelia Meath and Nick Sanborn deliver another compelling collection of sweetly fractured electronic indie pop. All of Sylvan Esso's strengths are on display here -- fidgety loops, heartfelt melodies, spectral sound collages, and lyrics that feel both inscrutable and homespun -- but where previous efforts administered fast-acting dopamine hits like "Coffee," "Radio," and "Die Young," the more measured Free Love reveals its understated splendor over time. Bookended by the lyrics "What if end was begin" and "Play it again," the ten-track set is both elliptical and existential, yet also emotionally substantive.

Full Review >>

The Lowdown: At first glance, the crowd at a Sylvan Esso show may look still. Hone in on the mound of bodies, though, and you'll see that the opposite is true: The crowd is moving unanimously. "Just imagine you're the seaweed in Ursula's cave," lead singer Amelia Meath said during the band's 2015 Tiny Desk Concert. Although she cringed at herself after sharing the thought, it was a resoundingly accurate way to describe the innate physical reaction the band provokes.

Full Review >>