SHARON VAN ETTEN – Tramp (Part 4)

Zach wraps up this week’s conversation on Tramp with a healthy dose of criticism. AudioVole’s therapist says this is expected behavior and that “sh*t can’t be fun and flowers all the time.” We’re going to have to ask to see his license. 

Stream Tramp over on NPR.

Sharon Van Etten – “We Are Fine”

From: Zach Evans
To: Sarah Braunstein 

Sarah,

Well, if your intention was to make me incredibly jealous, you have succeeded. Two Mangum concerts in a row? This is a guy who completely disappeared for, what, the last decade? His shows are going to be sold out for the next decade thanks to pent-up demand. I love Neutral Milk Hotel as much as the next indie rock snob, but I don’t know if his voice inspires me to apply for the scalp masseuse position on his road crew. Then again, I haven’t seen him perform live, so that may make all the difference.

I do agree with you, however, that Sharon Van Etten’s voice is her ace in the hole. It’s what allows her to sing some of the most depressing, upsetting songs I have ever heard and still keep me coming back for more. Contrast that with Interpol, a band I once loved with similarly gloomy material. I can barely bring myself to listen to their music anymore because it brings me down, and Paul Banks’ voice does not provide any lift.

You asked whether I have any criticisms of Tramp, and I do have one in particular: too many songs on the album rely on a structure of starting soft and steadily building in volume and intensity to a climax shortly before the end of the track. If you were to graph these songs they would be a straight diagonal line going from the lower left to the upper right, without any bumps or dips. This “gradual crescendo” is pretty dramatic and cool the first several times – witness my love of “All I Can” and yours of “In Lines” – but SVE uses it in at least half the songs on this album, and after repeated listening it starts to feel like a bit of a musical crutch. I would have liked to have heard more ups and downs within the individual tracks (think St. Vincent’s “Cheerleader,” which uses the loud-soft dynamic to better effect than just about any other song I’ve heard in the last year).

Having said that, I actually think this issue is partially addressed by the sequencing on the album. Songs that end big are followed by songs that begin small, and there is a nice ebb and flow to the intensity throughout Tramp. The order of the tracks is not as integral to this album as it is for In the Aeroplane Over the Sea of course, but it’s enough to make a difference in my enjoyment of it.

“It hurts too much to laugh about it”
Zach

Tramp is out via Jagjaguwar.