2019 Top tunes 12: Sharon Van Etten

[Rorschach]

Apparently this was my most played track on Spotify last year. I suspect that's because Spotify stuck it into all of the playlists it created for me, but I think it's a great record anyway. I quite like the rest of the album but this is killer:

[Geezee]

Great tune and great album. A bit of Springsteen vibe. There's a vicious version of it here at 8:20 where she really gives it some:

[toomanyhatz]

I generally like her, but can't quite manage to bring myself to love her. Might have something to do with what I see as a very common tendency with newer songwriters, to come up with good musical ideas, and then stretch them out with crescendos and/or production techniques. Used to be you had to find a way to say it in under three minutes. Now the standard seems to be five - sometimes more. Good ideas, not enough variation to them, in other words (to my ears, anyway).

Hope this doesn't sound too 'old man shaking his fist at a cloud'. I do think she's better than most. Just find it a common problem with these kids these days.

(She also gets bonus points for being friendly with - and appearing on the albums of - Antlers, who are one of the few who don't generally suffer from this tendency.)

[Rorschach]

That is fabulous!
In fact, I watched the first part of that video earlier today but didn't have time to listen past Comeback Kid (which is great as well).

Thanks very much for pointing out that Seventeen was on there.

I don't know why but just when she sings, 'I used to be seventeen', it really hits me. Really simple but, for me, seems to sum up a certain feeling of getting old. Gets me every time.

[Geezee]

I generally like her, but can't quite manage to bring myself to love her. Might have something to do with what I see as a very common tendency with newer songwriters, to come up with good musical ideas, and then stretch them out with crescendos and/or production techniques. Used to be you had to find a way to say it in under three minutes. Now the standard seems to be five - sometimes more. Good ideas, not enough variation to them, in other words (to my ears, anyway).

Hope this doesn't sound too 'old man shaking his fist at a cloud'. I do think she's better than most. Just find it a common problem with these kids these days.

(She also gets bonus points for being friendly with - and appearing on the albums of - Antlers, who are one of the few who don't generally suffer from this tendency.)

I think i know the tendency that you refer to, but I don't recognise it so much with SvE, or at least until her last album, which does add a few more production techniques (eg. a song like Jupiter 4). Personally I think it works on that album, and the crescendo on Seventeen is done very tastefully i think. But her first albums are very sparse (barely anything beyond one guitar and the occasional harmonium) and are generally at the 3-4 minute mark which I don't think exceed their welcome.

[Geezee]

That is fabulous!
In fact, I watched the first part of that video earlier today but didn't have time to listen past Comeback Kid (which is great as well).

Thanks very much for pointing out that Seventeen was on there.

I don't know why but just when she sings, 'I used to be seventeen', it really hits me. Really simple but, for me, seems to sum up a certain feeling of getting old. Gets me every time.

You might relate to one of the comments on that video (I certainly do)

Jason Miradoli wrote
10 months ago
I know Sharon Van Etten is not trying to forge a career by making 51-year-old fathers of three adult children cry at their computer, and I'm not saying I'm that guy...ok, I am. I am that guy. Beethoven once said, "To play a wrong note is insignificant; to play without passion is inexcusable." As a kid, I admired technical proficiency, and that's important. But that ain't what music is about. Her passion...that came from her soul...that moved me. She moves me. The world needs more of this.

There was a great clip a few years ago of a middle-aged news broadcaster in New Zealand (I think) getting surprised by a personal performance by Sharon van Etten in the middle of a broadcast and he was blubbing like a baby (don't think the clip is available anymore unfortunatley).

[Rorschach]

You might relate to one of the comments on that video (I certainly do)

Yeah, me too. Totally get that.

I've just heard some new stuff from her and it seems very different indeed. I haven't had time to investigate but I'll be back to this when I do.