Sharon Van Ettenisnt the kind of songwriter who blends into a group.
So its a bold move for her to try a different musical role: one of the band.
She even names the album after her new quartet,Sharon Van Etten and the Attachment Theory.
Sharon Van Etten and the Attachment TheorySusu Laroche*
Its her most groove-oriented music, the first time shes composed by jamming with other musicians.
Collaboration like this doesnt come easy to a confessional artist so at home in solitude.
I tend to write from a therapeutic place, Van Etten told Rolling Stone in 2022.
Its propulsive, with extremely Vince Clarke electro-burbles driving the beat.
The songs sound deeper and darker the more you listen.
All that skin against the glass, she sings.
All these things we think we lack / All this time we wont get back.
Theres so much urgency in her voice (with a clever Arcade Fire-style lets go!)
beefed up by the frenetic beat.
Sonically, its dominated by new keyboardist Teeny Lieberson, whos obviously a huge Depeche Mode fan.
Thats the biggest music influence here, especially the mid-Eighties sheen ofBlack Celebration.
The connection runs deep producer Marta Solangi engineered Depeche Modes latest album,Memento Mori.
(Non-band member Alex Reeve plays guitar across the album.)
Trouble sums it up in a languid groove somewhere between Fleetwood Mac and Talk Talk.
She contemplates the danger of taking a romantic plunge, savoring all the trouble I got you in.
As she sings, All these stories that I cant tell/ Watered-down versions of my own hell.
