Arguably, Sharon Van Etten has arrived. Are We There, her fourth album, hits major milestones in a musician’s ascension: an anticipated second record on a boutique label (JagJaguwar is also home to Bon Iver and Angel Olsen), a world tour with multiple back-to-back shows and a bigger, bolder sound befitting Van Etten's transition to new queen of the independents.
Despite the success, Are We There confirms that Van Etten isn't the kind of person to take the easy way out. These new songs cement her reputation as that of a confessional songwriter. She’s still in transition, still searching for something, still writing from the heart.
“The overlying theme of this record is trying to balance having a relationship while touring as much as I do,” Van Etten says, over the phone from her Greenwich Village apartment in New York. “I started writing a lot of the songs on the onset of Tramp, in 2012, so all these songs, they’re the most current songs that I’ve had on any record, so I’m still kind of going through all these things, all these issues.”
The cover art for Are We There represents the beginning of that journey. It’s a photo of Van Etten’s best friend, driving a car, hair tossed and wind-blown, during one of the last times the two hung out before they parted ways — Van Etten to New York City to pursue her music career, and her best friend to Idaho to start a family.
“The photograph’s supposed to represent a time of transition and movement and travelling — having a home, having a life, just everything’s in transition,” she says.
Almost 10 years after the photograph was taken, it sounds like Van Etten has at least found that just-right place musically. For the recording of Are We There, everything is amped up, and Van Etten enlisted Stewart Lerman (St. Vincent, Regina Spektor, David Byrne) as a co-producer. There are strings, horns, loops; more instrumentation, and that signature Van Etten vocal emotion.
“[I told Lerman] I want to have a band, I want it to be my band,” says Van Etten, of searching for a studio space before deciding on Lerman’s own studio. “I want to be in a studio that’s not where everybody records, you know? It’s not like this is the Brooklyn sound or this is the indie place or this is where Cat Power recorded. I’m still finding my own sound, I don’t want to work somewhere where my sound is being determined for me, before we even do any tracking.”
About half of the new album’s songs were tracked live with a full band (Doug Keith, Heather Woods Broderick and Zeke Hutchins, plus Dave Hartley from the War on Drugs), and the other half were put together with Van Etten playing multiple parts, including guitar, organ, piano, bass, drums and omnichord. Van Etten says she was listening to a lot of soul and R&B at the time of recording, and she would play the organ and start hearing beats, then kick in on the drums.
“I get a little manic and I just kinda go to town on the instruments when no one’s around,” she says, laughing.
Even with all the layers of sound, Are We There never overshadows the most visceral instrument in Van Etten’s possession: her voice. The push and pull of her desires — relationships with both music and loved ones; a home — is evident through the pleading and vocal lifting throughout. Van Etten is questioning her place in her life, in music, in everything.
Yet Are We There isn’t hesitant. Far from the sparse stylings of her 2009 debut, Because I Was in Love, the new album is confident, considering the album-long question that is its title. The sound is fuller, and Van Etten simply sounds like she’s at home.
“I just feel more confident and more secure in who I am and what I want, you know? I feel more in control of my work and my life, and I’m just older,” she says with a laugh.
Despite all the heartbreakers on the record, the singer is game to discuss her bleeding heart — even if she’s not sure yet what it all means.
“Honestly, I still don’t have enough perspective from these songs to know what they fully mean,” she explains. “I can tell you when I wrote them, why I wrote them, but to say the actual meaning behind them, I think it’s something that’s gonna slowly unfold as I perform these songs live.”
“Afraid of Nothing,” Are We There’s opener, is a double-edged sword. Van Etten says when she wrote the track, she was writing into the future, looking forward.
“I can’t wait ’til we’re afraid of nothing, I can’t wait ’till we can open up to each other and be vulnerable, not be scared about the future, who we are,” she says. “It’s like a plea, in a way. Just let go of yourself and be open, let yourself be vulnerable. It’s OK.”
But when the strings build on the track, and Van Etten pleads, “I need you, to be afraid, of nothing,” you start questioning the rest. Is it “I can’t wait to be afraid of nothing,” looking forward, or no, I can’t wait; I can’t wait for you to be afraid of nothing. Time’s up.
It’s a question that carries you through Are We There: the more you listen, the more you wonder whether Van Etten’s serving up hope or despair.
“That's kind of my struggle,” she laughs.
We’re just grateful Van Etten’s taking us along for the ride.
Pre-order Are We There on iTunes.
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