SHARON VAN ETTEN - Are We There?

Kategorie: CD-Reviews | Genre: Alternative/Indie | Heft: Jahrgang 2014, eclipsed Nr. 162 / 7-8-2014 | VÖ-Jahr: 2014 | Wertung: 7/10 | Label: Jagjaguwar | Autor: SaS


Their last album "Tramp" made Sharon van Etten famous beyond the borders of the indie rock community. In fact, she is one of the few interpreters who succeed in uniting art and commerce, which she underlines with the eagerly awaited follow-up album. The opener "Afraid Of Nothing" goes straight to the top: fat production, overloaded but to the point produced arrangements, a seductive melody and in addition desperate, but somehow nevertheless uplifting vocals. You don't really know if you should wed or hate this song because it's so perfect. The rest of the album is more reserved, which means that it sounds much more like indie rock, but also that you find a lot of weaknesses. One of them is van Etten's voice, which needs getting used to because it is so sluggish that some will find it erotic and others bored. Furthermore, the compositions are of very different quality: The wonderful "I Love You But I'm Lost" is opposed by the clichéd boring "Taking Chances". And so this album is above all one thing: a balancing act between two worlds that doesn't always succeed.

Top track: Afraid Of Nothing

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