Sylvan Esso - Ow ∞

Sylvan Esso embrace the hurt on Ow ∞, their fifth album and first in four years, a record that finds joy and noise in the same breath.

Amelia Meath and Nick Sanborn produced it themselves and tracked it at Betty's, their own studio in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, and it arrives through their label Psychic Hotline. Following 2022's No Rules Sandy, the duo sound restless and expansive, pushing their trademark blend of crisp electronics and Meath's warm, elastic voice into bolder, stranger shapes than ever before.

First single "Hot Slob" crackles with playful, off-kilter energy, while "Concrete Glen" builds its shimmering atmosphere around a sample of Sigur Rós. Elsewhere, songs like "Good at Pain" and "Flood Season" lean into the album's big idea, that feeling everything fully, hurt included, can be its own kind of thrill. Sanborn's production snaps and fizzes, but it always leaves room for Meath's melodies to land, and the hooks are as sticky as they have ever been.

Twelve songs long and full of surprises, Ow ∞ is the sound of a band still finding new ways to make the body move and the heart wobble. More than a decade into their partnership, they sound like they are only getting started.