Send "Sharon Van Etten " Ringtones to your Cell 
| Spin |
 A year ago, a Sharon Van Etten show at New York's tiny Mercury Lounge would've seemed just about right: up-and-coming East Coast singer-songwriter with a reputation for a solid live show playing to a small but growing fanbase. But that was before the onetime indie label publicist spent a year building up her rep — opening for pals the National, working the festival circuit, making her network TV debut on Jimmy Fallon. Last night's gig was just a little warmup before Van Etten embarks on an international headlining tour in support of her much-anticipated third album, Tramp (due February 7). Judging by her brilliant performance and the electric mood in the room, she isn't likely to be playing spaces this intimate much longer.With all the buzz and high expectations, it was clear that neither Van Etten nor her fans knew quite how to process all the newfound attention. It was hard to tell who was more awkward on Wednesday night: the crowd, who stood in such reverent silence you could almost hear Van Etten gulping her beer between songs, or Van Etten herself, who limited her banter to charming, self-deprecating comments ("Thanks for coming out on hump day, I know you have a lot to do") and appeared to be trying to hide out in a demure black sweater and dark pleated pants. Though she spent most of the show with her hair draped over her face, Van Etten wasn't shy about unleashing her gorgeous, limber voice and showcasing her sharp guitar playing. The show was basically a tune-up, a chance for Van Etten and her new band to work out the kinks of the latest songs, most of which she said they were playing in public for the first time. But besides a shortage of guitar straps, they tore through Tramp front to back with ease, switching breezily from the slippery Liz Phair-esque rock of opener "Warsaw" to bluesy, ukulele folk to sinister pop, like standout "Serpents." Though Van Etten doesn't throw a lot of wrinkles into her songs, she did break out an Omnichord, which looks like an electric autoharp, and is no doubt what the robotic overlords of the future will use to play plaintive love songs about the ironic loneliness of the binary language....full text |
| Prefixmag |
| The third LP by Sharon Van Etten, Tramp, is her most assured musical statement to date. Her label Jagjaguwar is releasing the record in February, but NPR has a stream of it in full for a limited time, which you can hear via this link. Guest players come and go as the record progresses, with contributions from members of Wye Oak, Beirut, the Walkmen and the National. But they are just bit part players helping to bring Van Etten’s singular vision to life, which, as NPR points out, contains a “refreshing, unmistakable directness.”...full text |
| Pitchfork |
| Sharon Van Etten's first proper album, Because I Was in Love, was nudged out into the world in 2009 despite the best efforts of a college boyfriend in Tennessee who had told her she was shit, hid her guitar, and shoved her back home to New Jersey. That album's tracks, and those of the home recordings she also released that year, were sparse, Van Etten's voice sometimes barely above a murmur, as if she were trying to figure out how to make music at the lowest functional volume. Her next record, 2010's Epic, was almost more of an EP-- just seven songs-- but it was a leap forward in sound and spirit. Epic pulled in little bits of kickdrum and pedal steel and electric guitar, and ended with "Love More", on which she proclaimed, over a doubled harmonium and wavering synth, "You chained me like a dog in our room/ …It made me love, it made me love, it made me love more." Van Etten first recorded "Love More" for WXPN and Weathervane Music's Shaking Through web series, which captured the session on video. It was one of her first in-earnest collaborations with other musicians, and can almost see new synapses firing behind her eyes: this is what music can be, this is what I can be. It's fitting that the same song grabbed the attention of the National's Aaron Dessner, who wound up producing Tramp, her first album for Jagjaguwar. The new tracks come from a year and a half of sessions wedged in whenever Dessner and Van Etten were both off tour. It includes appearances by Wye Oak's Jenn Wasner, Julianna Barwick, Dessner's brother/bandmate Bryce, and other friends of the sort that apparently tend to "just drop by" when you're a celebrated musician/producer with a studio in your Brooklyn garage. That Van Etten has been given the time and space and resources to feel out her path, unhurried by the tyrannous buzz cycle, is both a total luxury, and totally vital....full text |
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