Of the few things that captivate people from childhood to the rule-bound world of adults, nothing may be so universal as the echo. From every last corner of the earth, young and old can find themselves amused by the sound of themselves carrying on without them. It is sound dictated by the past. Likewise, so is Sharon Van Etten’s latest release, Epic. This second studio album sounds off with forward movement from her previous work, but listen closely and fans can hear the origins of the notes.
Take, for example, the country twang that the album carries ― the kind that blends well with indie music, not like, say, Gretchen Wilson country, in case there was some concern ― radiates a youth spent outside of Nashville, home of ten gallon hats and six string strumming. The track “Save Yourself” emanates Tennessee, with a steel guitar warbling out down-and-out honky tonk vibes. However, the rest of the album practices its' heredity with a little more subtlety. Epic is a duet of Van Etten and her guitar, as a lot of classic country really boils down to and, make no mistake, her vocals are the vocals of country music; worn by the world, harried, coupled with a shot of whiskey, and worldly enough to be jaded but not yet jaded enough to be cynical. Van Etten’s is a voice that expects harsh things and those harsh things hurt her.
If that doesn’t sound like the start of a Nashville hit, I don’t know what does.
This isn’t the work of a Patsy Cline protégé though. The rest of Van Etten’s history has a say in her sound, and that say speaks with something that bears a little more bite and electricity. The music of her father ― a staunch rock’n’roller ― edges its' way into the album in the form of driving beats on songs like “Peace Signs,” a track so full-bodied it could easily be mistaken for something by the four-piece suite the Heartless Bastards; known for heavier rock ballads. Even the simplified starter “A Crime,” with nothing more than Van Etten’s voice and her guitar, has weight. She strums with purpose and low tones take sharp edges as she declares with romantic angst to “Never love like that again.”
Speaking of those lyrics, those raw, soulful lyrics, from whence do they echo? What brought on the lines like “To say the things I want to say to you would be a crime/To admit I’m still in love with you after all this time/I’d rather let you touch my arm until you die/Seduce with me with your charms until I’m drunk on them”? While it might not be the total cause, some of the heartache in “A Crime” and the album as a whole might be attributed to a gone-south relationship in retrospect, looking back on it after some time away from it. Some tracks like “Don’t Do It” can sound like frustrated exasperations at a moment past, while “A Crime” candidly expresses the difficulties of letting go.
A past relationship, a childhood, a music-steeped family, these can all be pointed to as the source for the sound Sharon Van Etten produces so effortlessly. Whatever the base inspiration, when Van Etten belts her candid lyrics, what reverberates through listeners is pure captivation.
Artist:
www.sharonvanetten.com/
www.myspace.com/sharonvanetten
Album:
Epic is out now. Buy it here on Amazon .
