I have had this song stuck in my head for several days, this eerie earworm with her pure and crystalline voice, and now there is a video for ‘Leonard’, a song off Sharon Van Etten's album, ‘Tramp’, released via Jagjaguwar last month.
The video, directed by Sam Zimman, is as fluid as the song, an ecstasy-like, hypnotic journey driving through kaleidoscopic cities and landscapes just before sunset, superposed with Sharon’s barely visible face.
The song, already surprisingly soothing, becomes a stretching trip through the kaleidoscope of your emotions or the sad ghosts of your past.
I just love her abandon when she sings ‘I am bad… at loving,…you’, the emotions are confused and confusing, ‘he loves you’, ‘I loved you’, ‘you’re the coward’, the melody turns like a fast lullaby and we are never sure who is the narrator, the victim or the bad lover.
Sharon Van Etten, who will be at the Jagjaguwar and NPR showcases at SXSW next week, is continuing her tour and I am so excited to see her in less than two weeks!