Theme Song Today: Sylvan Esso’s Free
When I first heard it, I wasn’t overly impressed by the style of Sylvan Esso’s song Free. But when I read the lyrics, Amelia Meath’s casual humming, sing-song vocals made beautiful sense. It’s easy to imagine that she’s a little girl singing to herself, though with more knowledge than a little girl should have.
It’s no surprise that Amelia Meath’s vocals in Free are reminiscent of Mountain Man, the uniquely folksy trio Amelia formed with Molly Sarlé and Alexandra Sauser-Monnig before joining forces with Nick Sanborn in Sylvan Esso. As Amelia said on North Country Public Radio:
"I think the drawings are different, but the actual skeleton underneath the music is the same [as Sylvan Esso's]. Particularly with Mountain Man, the content of those songs is similar to the songs of Sylvan Esso, but they're just wrapped in different packaging. Mountain Man was all about being a human being in a very loud place and trying to speak quietly, and I think that Sylvan Esso's the same, except it just happens to have a bunch of dancing involved." --Amelia Meath
This quote could just as well apply to Free directly.
Meath’s quivering, verging on out-of-key voice in Free also reminds me of Frazey Ford, particularly my favorite (though quintessentially different) song entitled Done. It’s no coincidence that I first learned of Frazey Ford from online recommendations from Meath and Sanborne.
Alone in the kitchen this morning, like a little girl humming to herself, I heard my quivering voice singing Free and started to cry.
Free is a glowing example of how Poetry and Music have been intertwined for thousands of years. If you listen to it and are an empath like me, I’ve no doubt you’ll find yourself humming it later.
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Free
by Sylvan Esso
Bye
I love you
Oh, people always ask me
What it's like to love everybody
What it's like to love everybody
They ask me
I tell them, don't be crazy
There's too many people around me
If I loved them all they'd break me
You see
But if I'm being honest it feels like each moment is loving at first sight
Oh, I love how your looking looks inside
Oh, I'm never changing, but in the reflection reflected in your eyes
Oh, the magic of being packaged feels amazing
To be free in illusion
In an illusion of your making of me
To be free in deception
In a deception not crafted by me
So you see
It's me that I am loving
Though not the me that's talking
The one that lives in all those other minds
Oh, how I love her dearly
She never misses a beat
She's pirouetting blithely in the sky
She is free in illusion
In an illusion of your making of me
I am free in deception
In a deception protected by me
Mm
Oh, people always ask me
What it's like to love everybody
What it's like to love everybody
They ask me
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