Sylvan Esso – “Jamie’s Song”

Jason Kempin/Getty Images

Sylvan Esso – “Jamie’s Song”

Jason Kempin/Getty Images

New music comes to us via obscure channels in the late internet era, and today via WNYC’s science podcast, Radiolab, we’ve got a new song from North Carolina dance-pop duo Sylvan Esso. The song they wrote was inspired by one of the stories on the podcast, the somewhat harrowing tale of a girl named Jamie who is living and struggling with bipolar disorder. She eventually discovers that Lithium offers her the emotional stability the disorder has robbed her of, but later has to go off the drug due to other health concerns. Amelia Meath and Nick Sanborn listened to the entire podcast and then wrote the song about Jamie and her experience. Their debut self-titled album Sylvan Esso is out now, and this is the first new music we’ve heard from them in a while, aside from the news that Sanborn will be releasing a solo EP as Made Of Oak.

As for “Jamie’s Song,” it once again features Meath’s voice like a bright pinpoint, surrounded on all sides by Sanborn’s delicate framework of synth bleeps and slow, crisp beats. Later in the song, Meath’s harmonies appear as yet another layer of that framework, mimicking the whispered confusion of an ever-shifting world. If this is any indication of where the two piece are headed, their next album might just surpass the self-titled. Listen below, the song itself begins at 22:50, but the podcast segment before explains Jamie’s story, which inspired the track.

Sylvan Esso is out now via Partisan.

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