So much emotion transpires from Sharon Van Etten’s voice as she slowly articulates each syllable of her lyrics. Her voice is strong and weary at the same time and translates a rare combination of perseverance and vulnerability, making everything sound deep, making every word resonate true. I don’t know exactly what this woman went through, but her incredibly beautiful voice wraps the dark into a deep solemnity, with little anger and a lot of hurting.
The opening track ‘Warsaw’ may be one of the most tumultuous songs of the album, and makes Sharon announce ‘I want to be over you’ as if she was phrasing an unconvinced voice talking in her head, whereas ‘Serpents’, the epic lead single of the album, translates fear and a fierce desire to break free.
‘It’s bad to believe in any song you sing’ she also sings much later in the album during the luminous and glorious ‘I’m Wrong’, filling the album with tunes stained by uneasiness born from heartbreaks and bad relationships.
Many of the songs have an expansive and dense sound combined with a true intimacy driven by Sharon’s crystalline voice, carrying an equal load of weariness and soothingness.
But before anything, I have to say that it is very rare to be so deeply touched by a voice; listening to ‘Leonard’ will make you overdose on ethereal vocals like you never have before, as her vocals are floating lighter than ever with some surreal gliding before finally dropping, after many half-admissions, a ‘I am bad at loving you’.
The ascending melody of ‘All I Can’, a gorgeous slow build-up that begins with ‘We all make mistakes/We all try to free/The sighs of the past/We don't want to last’, continues with ‘I want my scars to help and heal’, and culminates in aches with ‘I do all I can/We all make mistakes’,… simple lyrics that resonates even more in the humming that ends the song.
And Sharon repeats this little miracle with ‘Ask’, finding more beauty in heartbreak, but not wanting to leave the pain too fast, with a ‘Dear I Need Someone Who's Lost/Tell me how not to stop all these tears and fears’.
Many times, the music hits some beautiful hooks, like with ‘We are Fine’, featuring vocal harmonies from Beirut’s Zach Condon, but it never overdoes it. The execution is effortless but it is never too easy to like, giving more and more at each listening. And Sharon Van Etten’s music is not always easy listening, as songs like ‘Giving Out’ and its clear-as-crystal-voice-in-a-gloomy-atmosphere, or ‘In Line’ and its languishing melancholy demonstrate it.
‘Tramp’, which was produced by The National’s Aaron Dessner, features a few indie rock guest stars like Julianna Barwick, Wye Oak’s Jenn Wasner, the Walkmen’s Matt Barrick, and already mentioned Beirut’s Zach Condon, whose vocals transform the choruses without affecting the solitude arising from Sharon Van Etten’s songs.
It is one of these albums that many people can find depressing, but that I find uplifting, as there is a sort of desire to escape in a beautiful place where she can sing her pain in plain light.