![]() ![]() In the past, Van Etten has specialized in lyrics that’ll make you weep-tales of disintegrated love, fodder for the heartbroken and, occasionally, remedies for the emotionally abused. Van Etten has captured the scrappy mood of the Lower East Side and brooding drag of Brooklyn, all while musing on her life, her new love (with former drummer and current manager Zeke Hutchins) and amorphous career. Van Etten wasn’t herself present for NYC’s early 2000s rock renaissance (though I’m sure her early-career stint at Brooklyn label Ba Da Bing was plenty educational), but there are nods to that era’s finest visionaries around every corner: The intense, driving Strokes-reminiscent rock ‘n’ roll on “Comeback Kid ” the synthy tick-tock of “No One’s Easy To Love,” comparable to that of LCD Soundsystem. The whole album is a love letter to the city’s sounds and colors. And not just because the magnificent music video for single “Seventeen” is Van Etten’s self-described “love letter” to the city, though that clip, which shows her revisiting NYC venues like Union Pool and Pianos, is compelling enough to convince you of the Brooklyn-based artist’s fierce love for the place she’s called home for almost 15 years. Remind Me Tomorrow is a New Yorker’s album. Remind Me Tomorrow is the first great rock album of the year, and it would behoove any and all of Van Etten’s fans, even those who staunchly prefer her folk-leaning material, and rock ‘n’ roll aficionados of all stripes to open their ears (and their hearts) to this beautifully executed pivot. And here, on her fifth studio effort Remind Me Tomorrow, those evolutions are apparent in a powerful sonic swerve, and in Van Etten’s desire to explore both nostalgia and rebirth, and maybe even how they intertwine. Singer/songwriter Sharon Van Etten has experienced a lot of change since the release of her last album, 2014’s Are We There, and they’re the kind of life-altering shifts-newfound romantic partnership, motherhood, career advancements-that are all but destined to reveal themselves in one’s art. ![]() But the fact of the matter is people change, and as art is so often an extension of the inner-self, their music evolves, too. Saturday Night Live’s recent critique on the matter, using the always divisive Weezer as a marker, proves as such: Sometimes we’re just not open to change. They might commit themselves to one particular album, destined to play it on repeat forever even as their favorite band grows and grows. ![]() Die-hard fans might feel angry or betrayed at a musician’s new direction. Whether Van Etten is brooding on the present or pining for the good old days, however, the general impression remains the same: this ambitious, arresting album feels like the work of an artist wielding her considerable talents with newfound confidence and conviction.We all approach artistic evolution in different ways. ![]() Counterbalancing these instantly memorable, flab-free slices of retro cheer are more obtuse atmospherics: Jupiter 4 is a ghostly love song that recalls Suicide Memorial Day a fug of eerie Americana. Songs in the former camp include lead single Comeback Kid, which matches its warm portrait of delinquent adolescence with a cantering breakbeat and stuttering synth line Malibu, a tribute to late 20th-century youth via the medium of a small red car and the stupendously catchy, Springsteen-esque Seventeen. Instead, this new mode simply gives her stock-in-trade – gorgeous, timeless melodies, lyrical introspection and raw, plaintive vocals – a new gloss, one that veers between a buoyant 80s nostalgia and a more sinister sheen. But the musician never appears to be jumping on a bandwagon. Van Etten is not alone in her decision to stop strumming and shift to electronic instrumentation instead – it feels as if half the rock and indie acts on the planet have made a similar move over the past few years. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |