2020’s Free Love was a big album for Sylvan Esso, as it earned the duo of Amelia Meath and Nick Sanborn a Grammy nomination for Best Dance/Electronic Music Album while lead single “Ferris Wheel” was a success on alternative radio, peaking at No. 12 on Billboard‘s Adult Alternative Airplay chart. It’s been nearly two years since the album was released, but now Sylvan Esso is back with “Sunburn,” their first new song since the album.
The tune is aesthetically in line with Free Love, as it’s a relatively minimal, synth-driven, dance-ready pop tune. The band said of the song in a statement:
“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-guessingproduced by Sylvan Esso
for you.”
The new song arrives in the middle of a brief run of tour dates for Sylvan Esso, which kicked off on May 11 and will conclude in Portland, Maine on the 26th.
Listen to “Sunburn” above.