The magnificent Sharon Van Etten is back with a new band, Sharon Van Etten & The Attachment Theory and they have just released their self-titled debut album via Jagjaguwar.
This is a new project that sees Van Etten collaborate for the first time with her band — Jorge Balbi (drums, machines), Devra Hoff (bass, vocals), and Teeny Lieberson (synth, piano, guitar, vocals). She elaborates:
(This is)…(t)he first time I have ever written songs from the ground up as a band, coming into a room with nothing but an incredible group of musicians and walking away with something so special. It was a great challenge and a life changing experience for me.
Van Etten says of the collaborative process:
Sometimes it’s exciting, sometimes it’s scary, sometimes you feel stuck. It’s like every day feels a little different – just being at peace with whatever you’re feeling and whoever you are and how you relate to people in that moment. If I can just keep a sense of openness while knowing that my feelings change every day, that is all I can do right now. That and try to be the best person I can be while letting other people be who they are and not taking it personally and just being. I’m not there, but I’m trying to be there every day.
The result is something quite magnificent: ten tracks that positively glitter in the firmament like a constellation: a collection of bright shining stars that hang perfectly together to tell a luscious story filled with an anthemic delivery. The combination of Van Etten’s delicious impassioned vocals and the sophisticated glittering instrumentation create melodies that soar – each track distinctive and euphoric.
Opening track ‘Live Forever’ fittingly sets out in its very title the classic ambitions of the new project: the creation of something indelible and lasting, constructed with an immeasurable quality. There is an electronic thrum and a haunting synth riff under Van Etten’s voice before a motorik percussion kicks in with an ambulant bass, sinuous and subtle. Van Etten’s vocals are ethereal and enigmatic: floating in the ether, building up with a powerful force along with the instrumentation.
‘Afterlife’ also has an electronic dappling sound with Van Etten’s vocals high and bell-like above the pattering beat. The ear for arching melodies remain with an euphoric chorus: a sound that is angelic and pulse-quickening with a thread of melancholia running through it as Van Etten sings:
Will you see me in the afterlife?/Will you tell me what you think it’s like/Come and tell me it’ll be alright?/Will I see you in the afterlife?
The song’s video, directed by Susu Laroche, collects footage of the band debuting many of the album songs in London’s intimate 100 Club in the midst of recording the album:
‘Idiot Box’ channels Springsteen with its storytelling style and drive, and echoes back to her classic ‘Seventeen’ with its anthemic force and Van Etten’s impassioned delivery that reaches a dynamic crescendo.
‘Trouble’ starts with a sonorous ambulant bass that flows throughout the track as other instruments glide in over the top: it’s an enigmatic sound that builds up with Van Etten’s voice velvet and soft, floating across the surface like a silken veil. it’s a melancholic reflective delight that drips with emotion and is deliciously hypnotic and sensuous.
Van Etten says of the track:
‘Trouble’ is about the idea of having to coexist with people you love who have opposing views and not being able to share deep parts of yourself and your narrative based on someone else’s beliefs. It’s about when there’s that big part of you that someone who loves you can’t know because it’s not something they want to hear or are willing to learn about or understand, and those painful realisations when you choose to love and respect someone else’s needs over your own to salvage a relationship.
The video for ‘Trouble’ was shot and directed by Susu Laroche during the album’s recording sessions at Eurythmics’ former London studio, The Church.
‘Indio’ enters with a rampant rock thrum and a vibrancy, with Van Etten’s angelic vocals displaying an impressive range, dreamy and floating.
The tone changes with the jaunty almost funky ‘I Can’t Imagine (Why You Feel This Way)’ and its Sparks-like delivery that also channels Lene Lovich’s ‘Lucky Number’. The synths dapple like sunshine and there is a disco throb injected with a little punky attitude. The bass slaps and pounds like a lead guitar as if Jaco Pastorius was at the helm.
The insistent synth riff creates an ominous spine to ‘Somethin’ Ain’t Right’ as it slips over another stunning bass line that weaves throughout the track, guitars adding a sinuous line. The chorus is anthemic and dramatic and the song becomes hypnotic and transfixing.
The distorted throbbing synth bass of ‘Southern Life (What It Must Be Like)’ and Van Etten’s chanting, shouty vocals create something more muscular and tough whereas ‘Fading Beauty’ pulls back to be more mysterious and ethereal as Van Etten’s reflective vocals drift over a distance sequenced synth and a dappling keyboard. It’s a dreamy, atmospheric, hypnotic track.
Having lured you into a dream-like state over six minutes by this dreamy sequence, final track ‘I Want You Here’ slowly shakes you out of your reverie with the gentle jungle percussion at the outer edges and a synth flow. The song slowly builds up in intensity and power, ebbing and flowing.
This is a tremendous debut for the project – Van Etten’s indelible songwriting craft is enhanced by her band, adding nuanced and delicate layers, while her velvet vocals and intimate lyrics remain powerful and unique.
The album is out today and you can download and stream here and through the link below.
Feature Photograph: Devin Oktar Yalkin
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