I think "are we there yet" is one of my favorite albums of the year.
― akm, Tuesday, 18 November 2014 18:22 (nine years ago) link
That's because it's brilliant.
― Hey Bob (Scik Mouthy), Wednesday, 19 November 2014 06:12 (nine years ago) link
The arrangements on this feel really rudimentary in that aggravating US indie way, which is a shame because with a big more care I feel like some of these songs could really be incredible. Still, 'Your Love Is Killing Me' is amazing.
― Matt DC, Wednesday, 19 November 2014 09:23 (nine years ago) link
I feel like taking every musician that played on this aside and gently explaining that it's okay for them to play a note off the beat every now and again. Virtually every song drags as a result, especially the stripped-down piano-led one in the middle.
― Matt DC, Thursday, 20 November 2014 10:31 (nine years ago) link
that seems to be a common quality of "confessional" singer-songwriter stuff, where somehow the straightlaced quality of the playing is supposed to match the confessional sincerity of the lyrics. obv there are exceptions.
― I dunno. (amateurist), Thursday, 20 November 2014 21:19 (nine years ago) link
what is it about? this blancmange of song writing tropes agree very straight laced arrangements, conventional etc singer songwriter, yes yes all that but despite this I am getting more and more pulled into the swirl of van etten she is very charming and her stuff sounds authentic and heady whatever that means i mean a conventional singer songwriter still great? clearly the word conventional is the problem here who cares right just listen to the ebb and flow and get swept away by the romance of feeling something imagine that emotion still working in 2015 what a crazy thought
― Hinklepicker, Wednesday, 28 January 2015 06:50 (nine years ago) link
new(est) song from the ep coming out in a week or so, every bit as good as the best stuff from are we there imohttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H9Gak2mKMrE
― slothroprhymes, Wednesday, 27 May 2015 17:32 (nine years ago) link
reviewed the i dont want to let you down ep, not an earth shaking project but 5 good to great songs and as a huge SVE fan i aint complaining about thathttp://www.treblezine.com/reviews/23647-sharon-van-etten-i-dont-want-to-let-you-down-review-2/
― slothroprhymes, Monday, 8 June 2015 21:25 (nine years ago) link
She's an actress on that new Netflix show "The OA". She's good.
― Everything Moves Towards The Sun (Ross), Tuesday, 20 December 2016 04:12 (seven years ago) link
I just now discovered that in the credits. Also, fuck this show.
― Ⓓⓡ. (Johnny Fever), Tuesday, 20 December 2016 04:34 (seven years ago) link
is she pregnant? I think I saw a post of her on fb that gave me that impression. I love her albums unreservedly.
I want to watch this show but I hear it will make me give up all hope on life
― akm, Tuesday, 20 December 2016 05:37 (seven years ago) link
Man tramp is classic
― done and dusted (Ross), Friday, 4 May 2018 06:21 (six years ago) link
Man like Olsen she’s singing about an abusive ex that should go duck themselves
― done and dusted (Ross), Friday, 4 May 2018 06:25 (six years ago) link
Are We There real classic too
― niels, Friday, 4 May 2018 11:49 (six years ago) link
Three songs from the new album due 18th January have come out and they are all excellent! I think I like the spooky Jupiter 4 best but the title song Seventeen which is nicely building up to her primal scream is great too. I am very intrigued about the rest of the album.
― Ich bin kein Berliner (alex in mainhattan), Saturday, 12 January 2019 14:35 (five years ago) link
“seventeen” blew me away
― jolene club remix (BradNelson), Saturday, 12 January 2019 14:37 (five years ago) link
never thought much of anything she done previously, but am riding hard for "Comeback Kid"
― veronica moser, Saturday, 12 January 2019 17:53 (five years ago) link
this album is gonna kick my ass, emotionally
― jolene club remix (BradNelson), Thursday, 17 January 2019 15:34 (five years ago) link
Brad otm & I can't wait.
Trying to decide whether I should listen at my desk today, or hold out till the drive home.
― The thing from the popular "That Thing" song (bernard snowy), Friday, 18 January 2019 12:35 (five years ago) link
I'm not sure what I think about this at all - the first few songs are ruined by bad arrangements and production yet again but Comeback Kid and Seventeen are terrific.
― Matt DC, Saturday, 19 January 2019 12:25 (five years ago) link
Didn't feel it until watching the Jimmy Kimmel vid, but Seventeen really channels some Bruce.
― eva logorrhea (bendy), Saturday, 19 January 2019 13:20 (five years ago) link
― Matt DC, Saturday, January 19, 2019 5:25 AM (one hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
idk i think the arrangement of the first song is perfect with those spaced-out piano chords, and while i haven’t gotten into “memorial day” as a song yet i really love the brief dip into trip-hop
“comeback kid” -> “jupiter 4” -> “seventeen” is absolutely the core of the record tho
― jolene club remix (BradNelson), Saturday, 19 January 2019 14:04 (five years ago) link
also really love the bounciness of “you shadow”
― jolene club remix (BradNelson), Saturday, 19 January 2019 14:05 (five years ago) link
This new one sounds pretty good to me, and the songs are good, but the whole languid-vocals-over-robotic-rhythms seems a strange, kind of over-familiar choice. .
― Josh in Chicago, Tuesday, 29 January 2019 19:26 (five years ago) link
I don't love this album nearly as much as Are We There or Tramp; and I agree that the production choices here make the album seem slightly ... generic. Seventeen is a great song but I'm struggling to recall what the other songs sound like.
― akm, Wednesday, 30 January 2019 20:29 (five years ago) link
actually you know what this album reminds me of? the last warpaint album (and the one before it slightly), at least productionwise. Sounds good but I feel like it also dilutes some of the impact of the songs, some of them mixed to a point where they just sound soupy.
― akm, Thursday, 31 January 2019 04:18 (five years ago) link
V. nice new song, a soundtrack cut
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fwv_vW3n8z0
― Ned Raggett, Tuesday, 13 October 2020 18:01 (three years ago) link
^ Just heard this song this weekend, and have been listening to it on repeat -- it's really good!
― Frobisher, Monday, 19 October 2020 02:57 (three years ago) link
i'm v. late to this but i can't stop listening to this song:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xzkr2i6Szy8
― would a nit be nice? (NickB), Wednesday, 3 February 2021 20:09 (three years ago) link
she popped up in a cameo in one of the sundance movies that i streamed the other night (how it ends, which was cute but very inessential)
― tiwa-nty one savage (voodoo chili), Wednesday, 3 February 2021 20:12 (three years ago) link
Fiona covering Sharon
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yhXd7YvCbgE
― self-clowning oven (Murgatroid), Thursday, 15 April 2021 03:17 (three years ago) link
IDLES the band doesn't do it for me in general, but "Peace Signs" is such a perfect song, their whacked-out cover works quite well.
― Citole Country (bendy), Thursday, 15 April 2021 13:23 (three years ago) link
From the new VU tribute album (w/ Angel Olsen on backing vocals)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YfDzadxEmhI
― papal hotwife (milo z), Wednesday, 22 September 2021 06:22 (three years ago) link
I somehow didn't see the video for this until the other day, lost track of how many times I've watched it. This is the hottest video I've seen in some years. Director really knows how to capture some smoldering looks. Production on this song is a wonderful Spector Wall of Sound that never gets muddy.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ibj87fwRaM
― akm, Sunday, 26 December 2021 16:11 (two years ago) link
Great kitchen dancing.
― djh, Sunday, 26 December 2021 16:26 (two years ago) link
Angel Olsen's haircut is my album of the year.
― Ⓓⓡ. (Johnny Fever), Sunday, 26 December 2021 18:01 (two years ago) link
Song is so epic. It needs an '80s blockbuster end credits sequence to soundtrack.
― a man often referred to in the news media as the Duke of Saxony (tipsy mothra), Monday, 27 December 2021 04:16 (two years ago) link
new album!!! i wasn’t even aware
― flamenco drop (BradNelson), Friday, 6 May 2022 14:11 (two years ago) link
I wrote about it and had a chat with her
https://www.uncut.co.uk/reviews/album/sharon-van-etten-weve-been-going-about-this-all-wrong-138270/
― Piedie Gimbel, Friday, 6 May 2022 14:42 (two years ago) link
Lovely piece that, I’ll be checking out the album!
― assert (matttkkkk), Friday, 6 May 2022 21:47 (two years ago) link
So I think this album is mostly a slog. She reverted back to long, slow, dramatic songs and ditched the bounce of her last album. Weirdly the album kicks up the pace only in the last few songs - if almost feels like the track list is mistakenly reversed.
― sctttnnnt (pgwp), Monday, 9 May 2022 14:24 (two years ago) link
I'd put off listening to this because I'd given up hope that she'd given up hope - seems like she'd conquered her demons, which while wonderful for the human being had made her albums less engrossing to me. I felt bad saying that out loud, but maybe I just prefer unadorned slogs. "Anything" has what I was missing. Her records have been growers for me, so hoping more will grow soon.
― bendy, Monday, 9 May 2022 18:53 (two years ago) link
Well, I think this album is a marked improvement over the last one, which sounded like crap even when the songs were good. But I prefer her doing slow and sad.
― akm, Monday, 9 May 2022 18:55 (two years ago) link
Interesting- I think her last album is by far her best. I like some of the older stuff too but I felt like she’d hit a new level with that one. But the new album is much more of a piece with her earlier output.
― sctttnnnt (pgwp), Monday, 9 May 2022 19:23 (two years ago) link
It's down to whether you like dreary folk shit or pop music, I guess. I mean I like both but I didn't find the poppiest moments on the last album to be very convincing (though I like seeing her play those songs live; but I felt like the performances on the album were more hesitant and the production really amped up to add energy that wasn't quite there in the studio and as a result things I like about her sounded buried).
― akm, Monday, 9 May 2022 19:55 (two years ago) link
I can’t stop listening to this album. Too short is my only complaint. There are so many beautiful songs on this.
― akm, Thursday, 12 May 2022 03:44 (two years ago) link
this album is def better than the previous
― flamenco drop (BradNelson), Thursday, 12 May 2022 03:51 (two years ago) link
Hm! I had no idea ILM didn't think much of her last album.
― Malevolent Arugula (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Thursday, 12 May 2022 09:31 (two years ago) link
it’s good but it felt like a few of the new production tricks distracted from what i liked about her. i love dirgey dramatic sharon, i like feeling like her songs are gonna cover me very slowly with their big black wings
― flamenco drop (BradNelson), Thursday, 12 May 2022 13:18 (two years ago) link
I like the new album so far and it seems to grow with each play. Especially « headspace » which is great although she might have gone a bit over the top with the repetition of the lyrics in the chorus !
― AlXTC from Paris, Thursday, 12 May 2022 16:47 (two years ago) link