Epic - Sharon Van Etten (2010)

Ideated from: clearing out the oldest items in my inbox

Something I’ve gotten to love in this project is starting into something I don’t really know anything about and letting it reveal itself. Van Etten is an artist that doesn’t surprise me when she shows up in mixes. I had her album from 2019 in heavy rotation when it came out. But I don’t know a lot about her, or her early albums. Probably why I put this 2010 release in the inbox.

The first thing that jumped out at me was the emotional immediacy. She has a very plaintive, emotive voice. The songs are (according to what I read) about an abusive relationship she went through, and while the lyrics are sometimes frightening, they offer a lot of hope and veer away from any self-pity. I was once told that pain makes you beautiful, and that phrase popped into my head listening to this.

Musically, it’s got a nice modern country-rock / Americana feel to it. A mostly standard guitar / bass / drums attack with some extra layers thrown in. It’s all very unassuming, which just showcases the songs’ content more.

Note: the link here is to a tenth anniversary edition that also features covers of each of the songs

Tracks I Liked:

Save Yourself - Emotional honesty at its best

Don’t Do It - slow and languid, masking a harrowing lyric.

Love More - I didn’t favorite it on spotify because I don’t know if I could listen to it again. Heartbreaking and beautiful, but hard to deal with.