Based on the dedication notes, this next album was a pandemic record. It was a crap time for live concerts, but at least artists were at home writing and recording for when the world restarted.
Disc 1825 is…We’ve Been Going About This All Wrong
Artist: Sharon Van Etten
Year of Release: 2022
What’s up with the Cover? Is that a beautiful autumn sunset or the rosy glow of the apocalypse?
Is that the Van Etten family farm, or just a rancher with a well-stocked storm cellar to hole up in until after the zombies lose interest and move down the road?
Either way you’re going inside, but in the second case you’re going to want to keep the light and noise to a minimum.
How I Came To Know It: I had liked Van Etten’s previous two releases, so this was me giving her latest effort a chance. Turns out, I liked it as well.
How It Stacks Up: I have four Sharon Van Etten albums, and “We’ve Been Going About This All Wrong” comes in at…#4. Depending on how optimistically you see the world, this is dead last or ‘just out of the medals’.
Ratings: 3 stars
This album was a slow boil for me. For one thing, I probably didn’t give it enough love before it disappeared into my collection a couple years ago (after which it had to compete with other Van Etten favourites when I was looking for inspiration under “V”). For another, it has a lush production and layered arrangements that I don’t tend to favour. However, in time I fell under its dreamy spell.
If you don’t know Van Etten, she is an indie pop artist, with an ethereal voice that keens at you from the Other Side, and a penchant for writing songs that cause you to slip into a thoughtful reverie. It isn’t a fast experience however, and you have to be willing to open up to her in an unhurried way.
It didn’t help that the better songs on this record come later. The opening track, “Darkness Fades” is pretty but has a lot of layers for an intro moment to a record. I liked it a lot better after a couple of listens. The second song, “Home to Me” had promise but that promise is dashed upon the artificial rocks of a synthetic drum machine. It isn’t that I’ve never loved a drum machine, I just find it hard.
However, it isn’t long before Van Etten wears you down with her persistent vision of music that mixes unexpected melodic structures with a wall of sound sensibility. You have to sink into this record, because it doesn’t work if you insist on trying to float on top of it. Lose sight of the horizon and drown in the sound. You’ll like it.
For all that the first song that opened my heart up was “Anything” at Track 4, which drew me in with a stark and simple guitar strum. Sure, the symphonic “all the things” sound came along, but it held off for a bar or two, by which time I was good and hooked.
The song also starts with some existential dread in the lyrics:
“Up the whole night
Undefined
Can't stop thinking 'bout peace and war”
‘been there. This song isn’t a salve for such geopolitical anxiety, but it does let you know – musically and through words – that you’re not alone.
After a couple more what I’ll call “soup tunes” we come back to some stripped-down happiness again, with “Come Back,” a song that showcases Van Etten’s exquisite head voice. The song also has a gentle and insistent build that makes you feel like something grand is happening. This record has many a song where things slowly grow and soar, with mixed results. Sometimes all the add-ons drown the melody out, and sometimes they infuse simple lyrics with a deeper import. On “Come Back” it’s the latter.
Overall, I enjoyed “We’ve Been Going About This All Wrong” even when, from a production perspective, I felt the title was very much on point. But it improved on every listen, which I tend to see as a sign the artist is onto something good. Also, while some of the songs were too lush for my tastes, they did serve to create dynamics and range that made me appreciate the quieter moments that much more.
Best tracks: Anything, Come Back, Mistakes
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