For all the attention that was paid to her 2012 break-through album Tramp, Sharon Van Etten returned to the studio ready and eager to turn another corner, delve deeper, and write with more honesty and vulnerability than ever. It’s a unique power of Van Etten’s; she creates a bond with the listener that few contemporary musicians can match. The result of that effort was Are We There, a self-produced album of exceptional intimacy, sublime generosity, and immense breadth.
Are We There turns ten this year and reasserts itself as a one of her most powerful and timeless collections. It is clear from the opening chords in the first song, “Afraid of Nothing”, that we are witnessing a new awareness, a sign of Van Etten in full stride, writing, producing, and performing from a place that seems almost mythical, were it not so touchable and real. Always direct, and never shying away even from the most personally painful narratives, many of the songs deal with seemingly impossible decisions, anticipation, and then resolution. She sings of the nature of desire, memory, of being lost, emptiness, of promises and loyalty, fear and change, of healing and the true self, violence and sanctuary, waiting, of silence. Amidst all that truly brutal honestly, Van Etten finds moments of levity, as she always does. “Every Time the Sun Comes Up” started out as a lark but lifts the album at its close, completes the world she’s let us into, and resets us gently for whatever might follow.
Released: June 2024
Cat: JAG255lp-C4
Label: Jagjaguwar
