Cape Town singer-songwriter Esspi (Sarah Pearson) has released her new album ‘FAUXstalgia,’ led by the focus track “Retrograde.” The album’s title comes from a term Esspi coined herself, describing the feeling of mourning a time never lived through, or understanding an emotion never personally experienced, according to the announcement.
The record draws on the production styles of the 1970s and 80s, with Esspi citing Kate Bush, Depeche Mode, The Eagles, Linda Ronstadt and Queen as reference points while filtering that sound through folk-pop, alt-pop and indie-country influences. According to the announcement, the album took shape over six years, beginning when Esspi was 13, built from voice memos transferred across multiple phones and recorded during school holidays in a home studio with producer David Jones.
The focus track “Retrograde” centers on the exhaustion of appearing strong while quietly struggling, a theme Esspi says grew out of a difficult period surrounded by the wrong crowd. Other tracks on the album include “Darkness at the Disco” and “What Am I Supposed To Do,” the latter written from a child’s perspective during a friend’s parents’ divorce. The album follows Esspi’s previous single “Tainted Heart.”
Based on a press release provided to Music Industry Weekly by Eric Alper, thatericalper.com.