Sylvan Esso – Play it Right
SoundCloud
Favorite albums often take time to grow. Love comes early, but canonization doesn’t arrive until years later, when the record is still in constant rotation and all others have been taken out. Then there are records like Sylvan Esso; records that become favorites two minutes into the first play, and as the weeks pass and nothing else is even played, you realize it was always a favorite. Sylvan Esso bypasses the norm in more ways than one, but perhaps the most mind-boggling is the way it burrows so quickly.
The duo is not unfamiliar with making layered, enrapturing music. Singer Amelia Meath has been working with Mountain Man, and Nick Sanborn is not only an electronic producer but the bassist in perennial favorite, Megafaun. It’s a duo that’s incredibly stacked with talent, but what makes this record so completely thrilling is that you can hear their talent expanding. This isn’t the sound of a one-off or throwaway project — this is the sound of two collaborators pushing each other outside of their comfort zones and coming away with a remarkable work. It’s completely singular. Yes, there are plenty of groups that have combined stark, powerful vocals with electronic music, but Sylvan Esso makes it feel organic.
Take, for example, the drop (if it can be called that) on their first single, “Play it Right”. The electronic sounds weave in and out of the chorus like backing vocals. This song uses sounds that typically create a mood of mechanical coldness, but instead the restraint and perfect timing makes something inviting and human. Tracks like album starter, “Hey Mami”, use Meath’s voice and lyrical repetition to lull before stunning with the sudden and unexpected addition of synths. Meanwhile “Coffee”, a stand-out track in a record full of amazing songs, intertwines the sonic elements, making something that almost resembles an acoustic piano pop song. Using the strengths of both artists — specifically Meath’s absolutely stunning voice which can easily carry a song all by itself and Sanborne’s incredible restraint – Sylvan Esso finds the organic in the electronic, all while delivering a record that simply refuses to be taken off constant rotation.
