We have the perfect soundtrack for a wistful and dreamy weekend thanks to Essy Sparrow who recently released her EP, Still Upset About It Actually. There’s five tracks to dive into, but we’ve honed in on the breathtakingly nostalgic ‘Artists Dreamers’. True to Sparrow‘s folk revivalist style, this song is a striking mix between vintage textures and modern pop melodies. It beckons forth a resurgence of this ’60s genre for a whole new generation.
Opening of ‘Artists Dreamers’ is a simple acoustic guitar, energetically strummed, and Essy Sparrow‘s buoyant vocals imbued with a rhythmic edge. This immediately sprung to mind Bob Dylan and Janis Joplin, who rose to fame with their acoustic protest songs. For this modern-day musician, it’s the emotional struggles of the human condition that attract her songwriting, resulting in poetic lines like “I hear you live in Kentish town and you became a teacher, got a whole new life you’ve got new friends, and you’re still a believer.” There’s an almost hushed reverence in her delivery, as though she’s sharing intimate secrets with friends. You can’t help but feel pulled in closer to this world.
The upbeat melodies add to the youthful quality of not only the song itself, but also the image of the “dreamer”, one who is filled with ambition, yearning, defiance and fragility. It’s also worth noting how Jemima Coulter’s production emphasises this emotional resonance by adding layers of subtle harmonies and faint electronic textures that shimmer beneath the acoustic instrumentation.
By the end, ‘Artists Dreamers’ leaves you with the sense of an open-wide pasture expanding onto the horizon; the journey might be long, but the possibilities are endless.
You can listen to ‘Artists Dreamers’ in our Folk This Way playlist.
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