Sarah Kinsley's "Last Time We Never Meet Again" is a welcome return to her kingdom of dreamers and heartache storytellers. It is the first taste of her much-anticipated first full-length album, Escaper, which will arrive Soon.
A composer of cinematic feelings, Kinsley spins a sonic collage as intricate as it is hammered home. "Last Time We Never Meet Again" begins with a whirl of fast, percussive strings filled with playful urgency. Like a slow waltz of nostalgia and yearning, "Last Time We Never Meet Again" fills up with more and more pieces with each passing second. A cello anchors the movement's lilt, while a buoyant bassline injects a playfulness. Then, as if taking flight into the stratosphere, Kinsley lets the chorus soar violins and synths in seamless harmony, a breathtaking juxtaposition, organic orchestration, and shimmering electronic textures.
This is Kinsley at her most masterful, constructing a pop song that throbs with life but bears the bittersweet heft of something slipping from your grasp. "Last Time We Never Meet Again" is heartbreaking, draping you in transient relationships' delirious, painful finality.