Sylvan Esso: What Now review – purposeful pop bangers

(Loma Vista)Though Sylvan Esso’s eponymous debut was a charming indie-dance diversion from the day job – Amelia Meath in Appalachian a cappella trio Mountain Man, Nick Sanborn in psych-folkers Megafaun and as spectral laptop experimenter Made of Oak – the duo’s excellently named second album seems much more sure of its purpose. On it, they gave themselves, Meath says, “full permission to just make bangers”, and there are three stellar examples: the driven, pul