Sylvan Esso has kept busy with their new label Psychic Hotline, creating a home for releases by the likes of Uwade, Flock of Dimes, and Bon Iver. Today, they've returned with new music of their own and their first new recording since 2020's Free Love. The new single "Sunburn," which was written this past January in Los Angeles, is a frenetic burst of new wave techno with thorny lyrics.
Amelia Meath and Nick Sanborn reveal that "Sunburn" is about "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."
Revisit your childhood below.
