SHARON VAN ETTEN – Tramp (Part 3)

Before Sarah sat down to respond to Zach, she whiled away her second consecutive night at a Jeff Mangum concert. She then proceeded to read Tramp in the light of An Aeroplane Over the Sea, which seems unfair. For those of you keeping track, AudioVole has now compared Sharon Van Etten’s Tramp to Bob Dylan going electric and An Aeroplane Over the Sea. She’s actually fairing pretty well, all things considered.

Stream Tramp over on NPR.

Sharon Van Etten – “In Line”

From: Sarah Braunstein
To: Zach Evans

Well, Zach. Before I address your questions let me tell you about my night. It’s about 11 PM right now and I just returned home after my second (yep, count ’em) night of Jeff Mangum concerts. The tickets for these shows went on sale back in the fall, when February seemed like a make-believe time in the future when anything was possible. To be safe, my October self bought tickets to both nights, an impressive feat considering both shows sold out in less than four minutes. Anyway, I dragged my tired self back to the Athenaeum Theatre this evening after a long day of work, met a friend, took my seat and thought about all of the things I should be doing instead (like writing to you). And then Jeff walked onstage, picked up his guitar, started playing “Oh Comely” and made me feel like a total ass. I mean, this guy’s voice is one in a million-billion and I’ve had the privilege to see him a total of three (yep, count ’em) times within 6 months.

My seriously exquisite luck is not the point though. While I sat through Mr. Mangum’s 90 minute set, I thought about how I’d never tire of seeing him play a live show. If I could be on tour with this guy (playing the role of…shoe shiner? scalp masseuse?), I’d never miss a night of his performance, not even if someone tried to ply me with Scotch and the promise of unreleased PJ Harvey tracks. Then I got to thinking that SVE has some similar vocal qualities going for her. Zach, like you mentioned yesterday, the live show she puts on is jolting enough to make anyone abandon a partially eaten picnic in order to catch even part of one of her songs. When you’re in the same room as Sharon Van Etten and she’s singing for you, there’s no where else to be. As far as I can tell, that’s a big deal.

You asked which tracks stand out to me. After “Serpents,” which impressed me immediately, I’ve found myself coming back to “In Line” lately. The track is a grower because, at this point, I’ve listened to the album upwards of 15 times and it’s only recently that I’ve begun pressing the “back” button at the end of this song. Even though it seems like a relatively barebones track, there’s a lot to listen to. The song begins simple enough, a little guitar, some light drums, and SVE humming some slow lines. She continues on with her story, unperturbed by all of the voices that start to pop up in the background of the music; unexpected harmonies, moans and cries that continue to build as the song progresses. And then 3:15 hits and shit gets dramatic. The whole group of vocalists join to sing in unison for the first time, repeating “In Line” using harmonies that you’d never come across in a formal music class. The sound is unconventional, borderline disturbing, and moving.

And then there’s “I’m Wrong,” a track that starts off on an unassuming note but comes to realize itself in grand penultimate glory. Horns, strings, glockenspiel, timpani (?!) all join to create one massive crescendo while SVE sings “please tell me I’m wrong” over and over again. You mentioned the word “cathartic” and I’d have to agree. If there’s a word that means ” cathartic²,” that’s what “I’m wrong” is.

So if all of this compliment showering hasn’t made it clear, I’m not at all disappointed by the new, fuller sound on Tramp. If there’s anything that I’d look for more of in future SVE albums, it’s cohesiveness. I felt this way about Epic although that record seemed very much like an EP to me so I gave it a pass. EP or LP, both albums play like group of songs that don’t have many contiguous threads beyond when and where they were recorded. I could scramble the order of songs on Tramp and I don’t think it’d change my experience of the album. Maybe this is an unfair comparison, but I can’t say the same thing about In The Aeroplan Over The Sea.

What about you? Any complaints, criticisms, or things you’d hope SVE would focus on if she were to read this conversation?

“Tell me I’m funny / Even when I’m not”
Sarah

Tramp is out via Jagjaguwar.