Sharon Van Etten - Are We There
Are We There
Sharon Van Etten
Tiger Rating: 8.0 / 10
Singer / Songwriter
As is so often the case with any creative industry, there is often a period where people can't see or appreciate what you're doing or who you are. For Sharon Van Etten that period may not have come to a universal end, but she certainly has made some good friends in the industry, garnered some loyal fans and, most importantly, been given the platform to shine in her own modest way. And that's just as well. Because she has a lot to say and a beautiful, soulful way of saying it.
NPR Music once said: "Her songs are heartfelt without being overly earnest; her poetry is plainspoken but not overt, and her elegant voice is wrapped in enough rasp and sorrow to keep from sounding too pure or confident."
I really couldn't add anything to that. And nowhere is she all those things more than on this album. There is enormous pathos in every track, but rather than crushing it's refreshing. "We're a empty as a brick-house that we filled without the sides" she coos on the title track. "Become your true self" she suggests as a remedy for all the false, existential bullshit "artists" indulge in. This coming from a woman who has never been afraid to strip off the layers of her genre, gender age or background and be the rawest and most honest version of herself she could be. And that's why people should care. She's anything but another pop star or another fading folk inspired girl with a guitar who can write songs like journal entries
.
SVE has something - something hard to define and possibly unnameable - that many of her contemporaries don't have. There is a consistency in everything she does. It's reassuring and unusual in and of itself. She is effortlessly intelligent, talented and honest. And overall, she is mostly just cool.
What's not to love?
WVS
NPR Music once said: "Her songs are heartfelt without being overly earnest; her poetry is plainspoken but not overt, and her elegant voice is wrapped in enough rasp and sorrow to keep from sounding too pure or confident."
I really couldn't add anything to that. And nowhere is she all those things more than on this album. There is enormous pathos in every track, but rather than crushing it's refreshing. "We're a empty as a brick-house that we filled without the sides" she coos on the title track. "Become your true self" she suggests as a remedy for all the false, existential bullshit "artists" indulge in. This coming from a woman who has never been afraid to strip off the layers of her genre, gender age or background and be the rawest and most honest version of herself she could be. And that's why people should care. She's anything but another pop star or another fading folk inspired girl with a guitar who can write songs like journal entries
.
SVE has something - something hard to define and possibly unnameable - that many of her contemporaries don't have. There is a consistency in everything she does. It's reassuring and unusual in and of itself. She is effortlessly intelligent, talented and honest. And overall, she is mostly just cool.
What's not to love?
WVS
Comments
Post a Comment