We’ve reached the apex of the curve, the middle point of the Top 31, and I couldn’t be happier to announce Sylvan Esso is strongly holding the #16 spot. On its surface, Free Love may sound quite similar to Grimes’ Miss Anthropocene, reviewed yesterday, but listen closer. Grimes’ has a knack for dark and gritty dance music, but where Sylvan Esso truly shines is crisp and clear vocals on top of crisp and clear melodies. There’s absolutely nothing gritty about Free Love.

I mean it when I describe them as “crisp and clear.” Put on some headphones and give the song “Free,” featured in the video above. It’s a very quiet tune, as if Meath is standing right next to you, barely singing directly into your ear. Listen for the movements of her tongue and lips in the recording — it’s all there, and it’s magical.

There are quite a few videos out for the album, which hasn’t been the case for most albums on the Top 31 this year (I assume because Covid made it quite difficult to pull a video crew together). I could have chosen any of these as the signature song to feature with this review:

“Frequency”
“Ferris Wheel”
“Train”
“Rooftop Dancing”

Sylvan Esso is two people, Amelia Meath on vocals and Nick Sanborn on the instrumentals, with both of them handling the production. Meath and Sanborn have been playing together since 2014, and they married in 2016. They’re adorable, and so is their music. They’ve been on the Top 31 once before, with their second album, What Now, having hit #19 in 2017. If they keep producing records like this, they’ll be on every Top 31 to come.

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1. Saint Cloud by Waxahatchee
2. Fetch The Bolt Cutters by Fiona Apple
3. Punisher by Phoebe Bridgers
4. folklore + evermore by Taylor Swift
5. Untitled (Black Is) + Untitled (Rise) by Sault
6. RTJ4 by Run The Jewels
7. Shore by Fleet Foxes
8. Serpentine Prison by Matt Berninger
9. The Ascension by Sufjan Stevens
10. Making a Door Less Open by Car Seat Headrest
11. Dreamland by Glass Animals
12. A Hero’s Death by Fontaines D.C.
13. Song Machine, Season One: Strange Timez by Gorillaz
14. Mordechai + Texas Sun EP by Khruangbin
15. Introduction, Presence by Nation of Language
16. Free Love by Sylvan Esso
17. Miss Anthropocene by Grimes
18. 3.15.20 by Childish Gambino
19. Women In Music Pt. III by HAIM
20. The Third Mind by The Third Mind
21. Superstar by Caroline Rose
22. Impossible Weight by Deep Sea Diver
23. We Will Always Love You by The Avalanches
24. Ultra Mono by IDLES
25. Visions of Bodies Being Burned by clipping.
26. Thin Mind by Wolf Parade
27. The Loves of Your Life by Hamilton Leithauser
28. Palo Alto (Live) by Thelonious Monk
29. color theory by Soccer Mommy
30. Fall to Pieces by Tricky
31. Quarantine Casanova by Chromeo

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