Album Review: ‘Escaper’ by Sarah Kinsley

For this debut album, Kinsley worked with another producer for the first time in her career. The producer in question is John Congleton, who has also worked with Wallows and St. Vincent, for which he was even awarded a Grammy. While Kinsley stated that she “likes to work and think alone” out of a need to feel control, it has also been a great learning experience to be in the studio with such a big producer, helping her to perfect this body of work.

The album opens with its first single, ‘Last Time We Never Meet Again’, which starts off the album with an arrangement of fast-paced and high-pitched string instruments. As stated earlier, Kinsley was educated in classical music as a young child, and the music made by composers such as Chopin and Debussy has stayed with her til this day. Creating string arrangements in songs gives them a different, nostalgic feeling that other instruments simply cannot. In this first track, which was originally released back in June, Kinsley speaks about a past friendship that has unfortunately ended. However, she discusses this on quite a positive note, reminiscing about the memories she and this friend have made together. This is evident from the lovely lyrics in the chorus, enriched by drums, that go “I still think about the days we’d sit and dream of other lands”. In the song’s final verse, Kinsley also sings about wishing the best for the other person, yet also wishing the best for herself – which is no longer feeling hurt whenever she hears the other’s name. 

Second on the album is the third and last single, ‘Realms’. Kinsley has said that she is very interested in alternate realities and how the decisions a person makes influence the different versions of a person that exist across these realities. This concept is perfectly explored in this track, which opens with the drums and piano, both quite intense in the intro and the chorus. “In some other realm, you are waiting for me” Kinsley sings, thinking about how this relationship could look very differently if other decisions had been made. It is a very cinematic pop track that includes a wide array of instruments, making it the perfect soundtrack for a film. Especially the outro is beautiful, making space for the musical genius to take the spotlight and create an otherworldly atmosphere that helps bring across the song’s magic. 

‘Glint’, track number 3, can be described as a twinkly, yet thunderous pop song. While it starts quite ethereal with the keyboard and some soft drums, some real bangs are moving the song along from the pre-chorus onwards. ‘Glint’ talks about the moments after a break-up where every little thing still reminds you of the person you have lost. The best part of this track is honestly the bridge, which opens with the line “Sarah, bring me back”, making clever use of a second layer of vocals to emphasize the idea that someone else is speaking to her. 

While so far, the album has been quite sad in its subjects, it only gets sadder for ‘Sublime’. In a very dreamy, string-backed song, Kinsley sings about “wading through the depths of dark just for a taste of relief”. In the press conference, she talked about how on this album, she has explored the more vulnerable and dark side of going through grief and loss, which this song is a prominent example of. The drums that kick on for the chorus, where Kinsley sings about her lover making her cry and feel crazy, add to this darkness felt when love is better lost than suffered through. 

A possibly more positive thought can be found in ‘My Name Is Dancing’, a sappy little love song in which Kinsley sings about her lover and wanting to “disappear into the wilderness of us”. In the chorus, which mainly includes drums and guitar, she sings about how she doesn’t “care for any other thing but your love”. Fitting in perfectly with the theme of this album, she is speaking about escaping from the world by diving into this love affair instead. Right after the bridge, the lyrics make room for a short instrumental break, a cacophony of a bombastic symphony that adds a very unique touch to this track. 

Interestingly enough, ‘My Name Is Dancing’ is followed by the slow piano ballad ‘Beautiful Things’, which talks about struggling to find beauty in the world after having been left by a lover, and ‘Barrel of Love’, played on an acoustic guitar. While the arrangements Kinsley and Congleton have managed to create throughout this album have been stunning, it is also quite nice to get a little break from it all through these acoustic tracks. In ‘Barrel of Love’, Kinsley speaks about a lover whose affection is quite toxic, whose “love is heart but it’s aimed like a weapon”. It makes sense that this is something wants to escape from. The theme of toxic love continues into the track ‘Matter’, which picks back up the drums, keyboard, and even the tambourine. It is a very funky song that includes positive yet quite dark lyrics, as in the chorus Kinsley sings that she is “doing better with you hands out of the knife in my back” and had to endure panic attacks throughout this relationship. 

In the ninth track, ‘There Was a Room’, Kinsley sings about longing for someone and wanting to run away with them. In the third verse, she sings about there being a room “of the things that I would do to get away with you”. A track that sounds more synth-based than anything, she perfectly captures wanting to escape to another world with someone, just to not have to live in this one anymore.

The most stunning song in this body of work, and according to Kinsley the hardest to work out, is ‘Knights’. While it starts as a magical string-and-piano ballad, it includes a huge tempo change from the third verse onwards. In the first two verses, Kinsly sings painfully about a person that she seemingly has loved and lost. “It doesn’t make a difference if you stop kissing me, you might as well kill me” she sings in the second verse before the drums kick in for the continuation into the third verse. She used this part of the song brilliantly to give shout-outs to all the things they have experienced together and the places they have visited. Afterwards, the song makes room for a funky instrumental break before finishing with the final verse and outro consisting of drums, strings and vocalizing. Kinsley has said in the press conference that the song structure is very much tied to how it makes the listener feel and that the tempo change took many tries to figure out. However, it must be stated that it worked out perfectly. 

Second to last on the album is the single ‘Starling’, which consists of soft piano and drums and talks about platonic love. Kinsley stated that in contrast to ‘Knights’, this was the easiest song for her to finish, as she knew straight away what she wanted it to sound like a tender waltz. It is essentially a love letter to her friends, who one should never take for granted and does not want to lose. As she has said, she feels like it shows her mental growth from ‘Last Time We Never Meet Again’. It is a very cute song, especially in the bridge, where Kinsley sings “If you don’t marry someone, then neither will I, say you’ll be mine”. A promise often said jokingly between best friends, shows the purity of this love. 

Finally, the album ends with its title track ‘Escaper’, a cinematic song filled with strings, drums, and piano that focuses on the idea of the escaper as “someone who is destined to leave, but will also return”. Throughout the process of making this album, Kinsley has learned that while escaping is necessary, at the end of the day “there is something beautiful about choosing to engage with the world, live in it and love it”. This final song shows exactly that, beautifully encompassing the meaning of this body of work. 

Kinsley has asked herself “Who do you become when you need to escape?” and “Who do you become when you don’t want to exist in the real world anymore?”. Pondering these questions, she has managed to create a pompous and vivid 12-track album, letting the listener escape with her into other realms as a way of coping with the real world. Kinsley has stated that she feels this album is very golden, a soundtrack of warmth and enlightenment. To sum it all up, escaping is a need for survival, but the escape always has to come back down to earth.