Thursday 7/23: Sylvan Esso—"Ferris Wheel"
Today, we share our thoughts on a new song by the North Carolina electro-pop duo Sylvan Esso.
Welcome to Endless Scroll, the brainchild of Eli Enis (he/him) and Eric Bennett (they/them). Since Feb. 2019, we’ve been a weekly podcast about music, the internet, and where those two things intersect. Now we’re, also a M-F newsletter about songs. Our format is simple: a link to a song and a short take from each of us about what we think of it. Each day of the week has a corresponding genre: Monday is indie, Tuesday is punk, Wednesday is hip-hop, Thursday is pop, and Friday is misc.
Today, we share our thoughts on a new song by the North Carolina electro-pop duo Sylvan Esso.
Sylvan Esso—“Ferris Wheel”
Eric Bennett:
Not quite the indie darlings of the moment that they were after their 2014 debut, Sylvan Esso have taken to making pretty much whatever they want. Take their live album WITH for instance: a collaboration with their favorite musicians covering their own songs. That’s the kind of self-indulgent thing you can do if you ever hold the cultural capital they once did. Now, though, they’re pivoting back to their indie/electronic roots for their upcoming record. Its first single “Ferris Wheel” drives harder and faster than anything they’ve made to date. Amelia Meath’s very singular voice drapes itself over the track’s pulsing yet minimal beats. It’s fun, sure, but there isn’t really that much setting it apart from their past work. That said, there are worse things one could make than a reheated version of Sylvan Esso’s first album.
Eli Enis:
It’s almost shocking how irrelevant Sylvan Esso’s latest track sounds, and I swear I mean that as a compliment. While listening to “Ferris Wheel”’s blue light-filtered thumps, mentholy synths, and Amelia Meath’s indiscreetly sexy (and genuinely awesome) vocal hook—which she kind of almost raps over a vaguely tropical electro beat—I’m instantly transported to an era where bands like Neon Trees and Passion Pit were megastars and the ceiling for indie felt as high as Coachella fireworks. I honestly think “Ferris Wheel” is fantastic, and I’m not saying that Sylvan Esso sound like dinosaurs on here who are catering to pure nostalgists.
But it’s interesting to think about how there aren’t really any contemporary lowercase “i” indie acts who are finding the sort of success Sylvan Esso did with club-ready indie-pop. Acts like Cavetown, girl in red, Gus Dapperton, and last week’s newsletter subject beabadoobee are running the game with vaguely emo gutair-based music: the sort of thing Sylvan Esso were perhaps reacting to with their guitar-averse, pop-but-not-Pop style of indie just six years earlier. Hell, the musical climate between this and Sylvan Esso’s 2017 record is staggeringly different. Nevertheless, “Ferris Wheel” bumps.