Tag: Sylvan Esso What Now

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Sylvan Esso Shares a Sweltering Banger

Throughout the course of this site’s almost 12 year history, I’ve spilled copious amounts of virtual ink covering blogosphere darlings and JOVM mainstays Sylvan Esso — Mountain Man‘s Amelia Heath (vocals, synths)  and Megafaun’s Nick Sanborn (synths, programming, production). And since their formation the duo have released three critically applauded, commercially successful albums: 2014’s self-titled debut, 2017’s Grammy-nominated What Now and 2020’s Grammy-nominated Free Love.

The duo’s latest single “Sunburn” is the first bit of new material since the release of Free Love, and the single is a concise pop banger, centered around a minimalist production featuring wobbling 808 thump, glistening synth arpeggios bursts paired with Meath’s dreamy delivery and the duo’s unerring knack for crafting big, crowd-pleasing hooks. Lyrically, the song describes sensory overload with a novelistic attention to detail: you can literally feel skin blistering from overexposure to the sun, the bloated feeling of eating too much rand so on. e

Written on a warm January evening in Los Angeles, as Meath sat on the front porch with a smoggy cityscape sprawled out ahead of her, “Sunburn” isn’t tied to a particular place or time but is rooted in the sour taste and sting of having too much of a good thing.

As Amelia Meath and Nick Sanborn explain:

“‘Sunburn’ is:

eating candy til you’re sick

riding your bike too fast down a hill

when you’re five years old and don’t want to get out of the water, and by the end you’re shivering and all your fingers are pruney and your lips are turned purple

an undertow that sneaks up unsuspectingly

the painful pulsing pink of swollen eyelids leftover after a day lying in the sun

plunging forward without time for second-guessing . . . “

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: JOVM Sylvan Esso Return with a Sinuous and Propulsive Dance Floor Friendly Single

Now, if you’ve been frequenting this site over the past few years, you’ve come across a handful of posts featuring JOVM mainstays and blogosphere darlings Sylvan Esso. And as you may recall, the duo of Mountain Man’s Amelia Heath (vocals, synths)  and Megafaun’s Nick Sanborn (synths, programming, production) have received attention for  a slick, minimalist yet propulsive and thumping pop sound that’s a radical departure from the duo’s previous, individual projects.

Continuing their ongoing run of critically applauded and commercially successful releases, the duo’s Grammy-nominated, sophomore effort What Now featured the duo crafting material that inched towards a self-assured and coquettish, dance floor and radio friendly sound as you would have heard on album singles like “Radio,” “Jump Kick Start,” and “Die Young.” Thematically, the material on What Now focused on a critical and deeply sobering question” where we do go now as a culture, when it feels as though everyone and everything is standing at a precipice?  And as result, What Now’s material was imbued with the urgency of our contemporary political moment. 

“PARAD(w/m)e,” the duo’s first single of 2018 — and the follow up to their critically and commercially successful sophomore effort, will further cement their reputation for coquettish yet forward looking electro pop as Heath’s come hither cooing is paired with a slick and glittering production featuring shimmering arpeggiated synths, hand clap-led percussion, thumping beats and a sinuous hook.  And while sonically being upbeat, lyrically the song continues in a similar vein as their sophomore effort, as it manages to be deceptively ambivalent — is a celebration of love or a celebration of survival at all costs? Considering the contemporary political moment, perhaps ambivalence at all things is par for the course.