Tramp is the first Sharon Van Etten album that does justice to her strengths as a singer and songwriter, says Zach Evans, before wondering if her new sound is akin to Dylan going electric. Really? We’re comparing Sharon Van Etten to Bob Dylan, now? Congrats, Sharon! AudioVole has just put you in some rarified company!
Stream Tramp over on NPR.
Sharon Van Etten – “All I Can”
From: Zach Evans
To: Sarah Braunstein
Sarah,
The first time I heard Sharon Van Etten was on a pleasant Sunday evening last November at the Hollywood Bowl. I was there with some friends to see The National, and we were picnicking outside the bowl when the opening act went onstage. About halfway through the first song we cleared the picnic table and raced inside to see who was responsible for the gorgeous music we were hearing. It was SVE, and she wowed the audience with an epic set that might have even been better than the headliners.
As soon as I got home that night I listened to Van Etten’s last couple albums and was… very disappointed. They seemed like decent singer-songwriter fare – a pretty voice and an acoustic guitar – but it was not the SVE I had fallen in love with mere hours ago. The title of her last album, Epic, almost taunted me. Where was the full backing band to support her rich voice? Where were the songs big enough to fill the 18,000 capacity Hollywood Bowl?
The answer, of course, is on Tramp. This is the first SVE album I’ve listened to that really does justice to the strength of her singing and her skills as a songwriter. You described it as “load bearing,” which is dead on. Her voice is recorded bigger and fuller than ever before, and now she has the musicians to back it. The track “Leonard” demonstrates the transition perfectly: it begins with SVE singing over a couple quiet guitars, then builds and builds, adding more guitars, strings, a driving drum line… it is dense, layered, and beautiful, and never once overwhelms Van Etten’s vocals.
While “Leonard” is a good track, my favorite one-two punch on the album is “All I Can” followed by “We Are Fine.” They come a little past the halfway point, once you have settled in with SVE’s new sound and have some idea what you are in for. “All I Can” is a five-minute crescendo to what I think is the musical climax of the album, where Van Etten wails haunting lines like “I know you are real, but my memory steals every moment I can feel.” It’s a hugely cathartic song, and hard to imagine what could possibly follow it. But like a cigarette after sex (or so I’m told, I don’t smoke) comes “We Are Fine,” Van Etten’s collaboration with Zach Condon of Beirut. It’s a simple, calming piece where Van Etten asks for reassurance that everything is all right, and receives it from Condon (who sings “It’s okay to feel. Everything is real, nothing left to steal”). On its own it is a pleasant song, but paired with “All I Can” it takes on a whole new meaning.
While the music of the album reaches some impressive heights, the lyrics tend towards the melancholy, as you noted. They are so personal and sung with such conviction that it is impossible not to believe that Van Etten is writing from her own experiences. But even though the emotions are heavy, they never weigh too heavily on me as a listener.
I enjoyed all the background on SVE in your email, but now I am eager to find out how you – a longtime fan – feel about her new sound. Is SVE with slide guitars and strings similar to Dylan going electric? Did anything you love about Van Etten get lost in the transition? Other than the rocking “Serpent,” what tracks are you finding yourself going back to?
“It’s bad to believe in any song you sing”
Zach
Tramp is out 2/7 via Jagjaguwar.
AudioVole 
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