Sylvan Esso (2018)

One Liner: Glitchy-sounding electronic indie pop that weakens after the Get Up Get Down one.

Wikipedia Genre: Electropop, indie pop
Home: Durham, N.C.

Poster Position: 4
Day: Sunday at 7:30
Both Weekends.

Thoughts: When they came to ACL last time, in 2015, I was lukewarm about the tunes in my review, but decided to give them a shot on the second weekend.  It was not great.  And on top of being a mediocre show (to me of course, the crowd was very large so others were into it) their laptop/beat machine broke in the midst of the show, which meant they literally couldn't play anymore.  While they tried to dig a backup laptop out of their gear, I went ahead and wandered off for another show.

The band is made up of a female singer (Amelia Meath (who used to be in a band called Mountain Man)) and male producer (Nick Sanborn).  They've had a Grammy nomination (2017 - Best Electronic Dance Album) and successful charting of a few songs.

Their album back when I saw them in 2015 (2014's Sylvan Esso) still has their biggest hit, "Coffee," with 66.4 million streams.

Good tune.  Clean, simple, groovy, very light touch.  I like the video too.  Also back in 2015, they did a Tiny Desk.

You can see how it is that they couldn't keep playing when their machine died at ACL, since all they have is that big Knob-Master-2000 and laptop.  And a mike.  And after they play "Coffee," you can tell that they aren't even sure how to use their Knob-Master-2000. Interesting.  Maybe they just have a thing to only play 1/3 of their shows, blame it on their machine, and then go smoke a bowl but still get paid.  I figured their shit out!  Anyway, they tunes are lovely - I like how simple and clean they are, and her voice is cool.

Since then, they've released another album, 2017's What Now.  What about that one?  The opening tune sounds like that new weird Bon Iver album where he uses lots of effects on his voice to make a robot lullaby.  Most of these songs are very chill, clean tunes, with a few trying to be danceable ("Radio," for one, although its a little too frantic to be truly danceable to me).  The top track is "Die Young," with 23.7 million streams.

It's like an old school video game song got remixed with Lana Del Rey.  I feel like all of these songs try to straddle some weird line between actual electronic music and darker torch indie music.  And it misses for me.  Most of the underlying tracks are a little too glitchy, without a real groove to get into.  Reminds me a little of the issues I have with the new Bjork - missing the danceable groove that would otherwise suck me in.

So, I think I'll pass on this in the Fall.