Sharon Van Etten
Epic

THE REVIEW

That almost off-key voice, half-ruined by the nausea and fatigue of those same verses she's singing: "Never let myself love like that again" she keeps repeating in the opening track Crime. That acoustic guitar played in a nearly rough and approximate way strikes me immediately and together with the voice creates a suggestive and sweetly desperate effect.

This is the first album I've listened to by Sharon Van Etten, a young singer-songwriter from New Jersey, who then moved to New York to pursue her dream of expressing pain and passion with the 6 strings.

"I woke up I was already me" thus begins the gritty second track Peace Sign, now supported by a tribal rhythm drum and bass, almost between grunge and Native American dance, minimal and incisive.

Save Yourself is an airy and bittersweet country song. Then comes DsharpG, which as the title suggests is supported only by two alternating notes and recurring snare hits and the atypical sound of a keyboard instrument played by Van Etten, similar to a toy accordion often present in her live performances.

The fifth track, full of direct references to a friend's attempted suicide, speaks of that death instinct that cannot be curbed even with the help of a friendly person or of Van Etten's sweet and persuasive voice. The inevitable cannot and should not be stopped: "You were born to do it, even if I don’t want you to do it."

Near the end of the mini-album, my favorite track arrives: One Day. Spirited like the girl-pop groups of the '60s, with syncopated tambourines and angelic voices, accompanied by a personal and hyper-realistic text as Van Etten has accustomed us to throughout the album.

The album closes with Love More: "Chained to the wall of our room. Yeah you chained me like a dog in our room. I thought that's how it was. I thought that we were fine." Just