Sarah Kinsley’s EP ‘Fleeting’ Is Meant For Forever
Photo via Sarah Kinsley.
“I want to feel it all / The edges of your soul,” Sarah Kinsley exclaims over a bed of lush, dance-pop synths in “Lonely Touch,” the opening track on her newest EP, Fleeting. The line serves as the project's thesis, with each track infused with the exhilaration of a path toward love and yearning. Unlike the definition for fleeting, which describes something as brief or short-lived, Kinsley argues that moments are all we have, and the weight and brevity of that alone is reason to cherish them forever. Masterful at creating a form of escapism through her music, the EP serves as a vessel that brings us to the places our minds retreat to, whether past, present, or future.
Nearly two years since the release of her debut album, Escaper, Kinsley continues to mark herself as a generational talent. Her genre-blending of classical-pop brings a refreshing voice to the scene, comparable to Laufey and Magdalena Bay merging into one powerhouse artist. The singer-songwriter has never been one to shy away from the things she feels, and this time around, she decides to submerge herself in the tide of deep emotions completely. Where Escaper leans into her classical roots with prancing violin strings and grand choruses, Fleeting sweeps you off your feet into a synth-pop soirée—unveiling another facet of the magic Kinsley is capable of.
Indulging in the idea of romantic endeavors, “Truth of Pursuit” strives for the thrill of connection– for the electric spark that comes from brushing fingertips and nervous glances. The track soars with a sonic structure as vibrant and flashy as Børns’ “Electric Love,” with Kinsley bathed in a sea-blue spotlight in the accompanying music video. Being alive and in love, however, has the risk of leading to our own demise: “Turned my life upside down for a face / Destroy my entire world for the chase / I did it all for one embrace.” But this is exactly what the truth of pursuit is to her–– to be thrust into the full scope of the human experience.
The hauntingly ethereal “Reverie” is a delicate ode to the Escapism era, where Kinsley finds herself caught in a paralyzing illusion that was once a blissful dreamscape. Stripped down to a powerful ballad, her larger-than-life lyricism floats over a piano arrangement before building out into something celestial: “To keep myself alive / I leave the fantasy behind / Just a reverie taking over me / So I let it die.”
In “After All,” featuring Paris Paloma, the lingering scent of a past relationship refuses to wash out of her hair, despite Kinsley herself calling it quits. “Don't say it, don't question, I still feel it all / Don't say it, but if I meant it, would you call?” she implores beneath cinematic keys as a last attempt to rekindle a flame she knows has vanquished. “Fleeting” bursts with rattling revelations, ending on just the right note as Kinsley embraces the cyclical nature of life with the line that encapsulates it all: “It's not forever, it's just a feeling.”
“[T]his body of work is for the timelessness of desire. The ways we transcend our physical form when we long, when we chase. Love and yearning are a weird sort of proof of our aliveness. I wanted to make music that would honor that thrill and equally remind myself that all things will pass. There is a beauty to not being able to hold on forever,” she writes in an Instagram post to celebrate the EP’s release.
Fleeting is for the people who are not afraid to lend themselves to all of the stages of falling in love––even if it means falling into loss, too.
Kinsley is set to embark on a North American/UK tour this spring. Fleeting is now available on all streaming platforms.
