It doesn’t happen often that an artist is able to actually affect the way you absorb music altogether, but Sylvan Esso has done just that for me (and many, many others from what I’ve seen on Reddit). The intricacies of their music have made me appreciate electronic sound with more depth and attention. So the first thing I’d say about their third and latest album, Free Love, is to give it a listen-through with headphones. There’s such an eerily intimate energy to the collection that some solo attention feels necessary.
The American duo, made up of Amelia Meath and Nick Sanborn, formed in 2013. At the time they met, Meath was still a part of the folk group Mountain Man, performing as backup singers for Feist. Sanborn entered the picture when, through his ‘Made of Oak’ music project, he approached Meath’s group to write a remix of their song Play It Right. (Yep, the very version that later ended up on Sylvan Esso’s debut album.)
Unearthing an extraordinary blend of musical talents, the two of them decided to begin a new era of collaboration. Meath soon told her boss about her plans – and Feist remembers the conversation: “She’s like, ‘Yeah, I think I’m in love. And we’re going to make a wicked record… I remember her being like, ‘It’s sort of electronic music and he’s going to make beats and I’m going to sing and it’s going to be massive and amazing.’ She just had a big grin on her face, overflowing with ideas. A few short years later, I was side stage at Eaux Claires [festival] watching her and Nick headline, watching thousands of people singing every word.”
Both incredible artists in their own right, the duo’s partnership soon flourished into something profoundly unique, and they married sometime between their first and second albums.
Combining Meath’s remarkable voice, Sanborn’s experimental production and their shared roots in folk songwriting, Sylvan Esso’s world of music is unlike anything else.
Free Love is their first album release since What Now in 2017, and it’s been self-described as their “first true ‘band’ record.” While in the past Meath focused on songwriting and melodies and Sanborn on beats and production, this project had them working together as a unit throughout the process. It’s the first of their shared albums on which Meath has co-production credits.
“At the heart of Sylvan Esso is this really fun argument,” she once described in an interview. “Nick wants things to sound unsettling, but I want you to take your shirt off and dance.”
Free Love is a perfect blend of both angles, with more focus than ever before on Meath’s lyrics and distinct vocal delivery.
This becomes clear off the bat with opener What If, which shows their style at its most minimal (similar to songs of their past like Sound and Slack Jaw). It’s a perfect introduction to the album because the minimalist arrangements force you to listen closely to hear every contour of Meath's voice as she leads Sanborn’s looping electronics. She leaves you on the edge of her last words –
Oh, it’s not what you think
It’s a memory bank
and it’s living in our mouths
So open wide, she’s coming out
– a perfect invitation to delve into the rest of the album.
True to form for Sylvan Esso, Free Love offers song after song that each uniquely invite you to move in some way. The more uppity tracks like Ferris Wheel and Train are driven by punchy beats that make it especially hard to sit still. (If anyone were to walk in on me working from home with my headphones on these days, they’d be in for a show.)
Ferris Wheel has been widely lauded as the standout single of the album – “just a flirty summertime song about being on the edge of sexuality,” says Meath,” – feeling the newfound power your body holds and trying to figure out how to wield it – the joy and fear in that.”
While it is a fantastic track, Train is the home run, unbeatable bop of the album in my books. I can’t imagine ever getting tired of its upbeat energy and catchy lines – just try not bouncing your head along as Meath playfully belts “I’m not aggressive, I’m just underpaid.” Flawless.
Numb is another trance of a song. I always feel as if I’m acting like I’m on drugs when I try to dance freely to its hypnotic beats (alone in my room between Zoom meetings). It’s one of the few songs of the album that feels particularly suited for our strange world these days. Meath put it beautifully: “This one morphed into a dance that’s kind of a magic spell – a way of naming all the reasons why you are sad or overwhelmed – and shaking it out – shake yourself out of apathy, remember you are alive.”
Other timely standouts are Rooftop, which magically captures the resilience and humming spirit of cities in lockdown, and Frequency, which brews at a slow simmer while the singer describes falling in love remotely via radio static. (And what a beautiful image ---- of love as being two people tapped into the same frequency.)
For folk devotees, there’s a few stellar pieces of songwriting to admire. Free – which Meath describes as “the best song I’ve ever written, lyrically” – is by far the most raw and intimate of the bunch, a truly breathtaking number that once again directs all attention to her bare vocals. When asked about the track's meaning, Sanborn gave interesting context: “What Amelia was doing was reacting to this increasingly tense world around us... She was looking inward and trying to remember all the times when loving other people was incredibly easy. There is that sense of almost guilty realization that when we love somebody else, a big chunk of that is loving the version of ourselves that we can tell that they see.”
Meath herself recently described in an interview that Free is about “how, in order to let anyone love you, there’s a certain amount of letting yourself be cloaked in their impression of you. That’s a way of showing them love. It’s a compromise: I’ll be this thing for you, if that will get me the love that I want. If that lets me revel in your vision of who I am, sure, I’ll take that on. It’s like a feedback loop.”
Line after line, the lyrics of the song succinctly capture that idea. “Oh, I'm never changing, but in the reflection reflected in your eyes / the magic of being packaged feels amazing,” Meath admits in her signature whisper-singing.
To add to the song’s openness, Free also starts with an off-the-cuff “I love you,” the sweetest example of the samples of studio chatter scattered throughout the album. Meath recalls: “We wanted to keep that ‘I love you’ in mostly because you can totally hear that it’s me being like, ‘fuck off! Just do the thing!’ – which is so what the song is about… It’s such a nightmare to actually hear myself saying ‘yeah, get your shit together, I love you,’ instead of the honest, true ‘I love you’. But that’s how we communicate! I love the intimacy – vulnerability forever!”
These tiny tidbits of behind-the-scenes life really do add an extra little layer of intimacy between the artists and their audience. “With every record we’ve made, and with every record I’ve made, I’ve always wanted to be able to have people feel like they are also in the room,” Meath says. “People can see behind Sylvan Esso. It’s definitely a pop band, but instead of lying and maintaining the illusion that we’re perfect, untouchable beings, I think it’s really cool to let people know that we’re weird dorks. They have the capacity to do exactly what we’re doing as well.”
In that spirit, at the end of the album’s closer Make It Easy we hear Meath sigh and say “cool!”, with a casualness that seems to imply that the world of music they’ve just created was almost an accident.
If you find yourself head-over-heels obsessed with these songs (maybe more so with every listen) you’re not alone. And I’m not just talking about myself --- this is the duo’s very own favourite project to date. Though they’re usually ones to avoid extolling industry success, they’ve both been vocal about how successful this record feels. “It’s the best thing we’ve ever made,” Meath has beamed. “Every other time I’ve finished a record, I’m not interested in hearing it again. With this, I just fucking love it. I want to hear it all the time. I'm so proud of it.”
Sylvan Esso has again delivered an album that has both the tenderness to sit with you while you curl up in a ball, and also an energetic intensity that makes you want to swing, twist, shimmy, hop, flip, spin and anything else your body feels inclined to do. Give these songs the time to get under your skin and you’ll soon see them take on a life of their own.
As always, happy listening!
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