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Free Love Image
Metascore
73

Generally favorable reviews - based on 9 Critic Reviews What's this?

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  • Summary: The third full-length studio release for the electro-pop duo of Amelia Meath and Nick Sanborn was produced by John Hill in Los Angeles and completed in North Carolina.
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Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 6 out of 9
  2. Negative: 0 out of 9
  1. 90
    Sylvan Esso have always made albums that demand to be listened to at the expense of everything else in your record collection. Free Love is no exception. It’s the pair’s most cohesive body of work yet, and despite its more left-field moments, possibly their most accessible.
  2. Sep 28, 2020
    83
    Free Love is an album you wade through, one that carefully encourages you to move with it and move through it, challenges your existence and presses you to feel, then drops you off lightly just a few feet away. It’s a true testimony to the fertile partnership that is Sylvan Esso.
  3. Sep 28, 2020
    80
    There’s something in the way Sylvan Esso craft their music, weaving folksy melodies and acoustic instruments with synths and 808s, that feels like exactly what pop music should be: punchy and pure.
  4. Oct 2, 2020
    70
    Detractors will rightfully point out that Free Love utilizes the same sonic architecture as its predecessors, but it's a fairly idiosyncratic template and one that Meath and Sanborn have shown great skill with over three albums now. Besides, the world always needs more dance music for introverts.
  5. Oct 2, 2020
    64
    “Free,” is also one of its most interesting, as Meath all but whispers her way through a reflection on love and illusion while synth chords (but no beat) gently pulse around her. The middle of the album, though, lines up too many tunes that never catch fire, and thus run together. ... To its credit, Free Love does close on a strong note with “Make It Easy.”
  6. Oct 23, 2020
    60
    The mood and the energy here is as catchy as it's ever been, even if the duo's clever, tightly-wound experiments sometimes come across as intriguing rather than complete.
  7. Oct 12, 2020
    55
    Sylvan Esso’s third was left with hard acts to follow. For a duo that to this point seemed in full command of their mission, trying out some well-worn paths only leaves them flat footed in the wrong places.

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