Todd Sentilles was born in New Orleans and now lives along Florida’s Gulf Coast, and the geography matters. His music carries the particular restlessness of someone who has covered that kind of distance without quite arriving anywhere permanent, and The Scenic Route Sessions, his debut solo EP, is five songs about what that feeling costs and occasionally offers. Recorded in Nashville with seasoned players and produced by Josh Bright, the record pulls from Jeff Buckley’s emotional directness, Thom Yorke’s cinematic unease, and The Wallflowers’ Americana grounding into something that sounds genuinely like one person’s specific experience rather than a genre exercise.
Sentilles has released music under different names before, Fly Molo and Bosco Huntley among them, and the solo material he’s gathered here feels like the first time the work and the person match cleanly. “Headstart” opens the EP with the restlessness that runs through all five tracks, the title suggesting both a head start on something and the desperate desire for one. The song earned placement in an upcoming Netflix film, which makes sense: it has the kind of melodic momentum that works in motion, underscoring forward movement rather than stillness.
“Gonna Be a Good Day” arrives with the quality of a declaration that doesn’t fully convince the person making it, the optimism present but held against some resistant internal weather. That tension between hope and doubt is where Sentilles works most comfortably, and the Nashville production gives him the sonic architecture to hold both without forcing a resolution. Josh Bright’s production throughout is polished enough to carry the cinematic sweep the material aims for without smoothing out the rawness that makes it credible.
“Walking Alone” is the EP’s most nakedly confessional moment, the subject of the title not framed as tragedy but as a condition to be navigated. Sentilles has described the record as honest about feeling restless, searching for meaning, and trying to hold onto hope while figuring your way through life, and “Walking Alone” is where that description lands most directly.
“Chasing Ghosts” is the EP’s most fully realized track. “Well there goes another day / you’re passing through walls, you’re fading away / emptied out rooms, and nothing to say” opens with an image of someone present but unreachable, haunting the halls and the home simultaneously. The chorus pivots to patience: “I’m biding my time till you give me a sign / and I’ll bring you back to life when your hand is outstretched and in mine.” The final verse earns the whole song’s emotional weight: “I won’t wait by the phone / I won’t chase or follow, your science is known / I have nothing if not being alone.” The acceptance arrives without bitterness, which is harder to write than anger and more honest about how these things actually end. The ghost imagery fits a New Orleans native, and Sentilles uses it without leaning on the obvious associations.
“Runaround” closes the EP with the kind of energy that suits a final track, the title doing the work of describing both what the narrator has been put through and what they’re now refusing to accept. The record ends not on resolution but on refusal, which is a more interesting place to leave things than a tidy conclusion.
At five songs, The Scenic Route Sessions does what a debut EP should: it establishes a voice clearly enough that you want to hear where it goes next. Sentilles has built his sound from the inside out, songwriting first with the production serving the feeling rather than defining it. The scenic route takes longer. It also tends to show you more.
The Scenic Route Sessions is available now.
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