SHARON VAN ETTEN plays Lee’s Palace on February 21. See listing. Rating: NNN
Sharon Van Etten’s third album, produced by the National’s Aaron Dessner, should move her closer to being recognized as a great and unique songwriter, though the album never quite takes off the way many of us hoped. That’s the thing about the Brooklyn indie folk musician: you find yourself rooting for her, possibly because of the aching sadness – mournfulness might be a better word – in her soulful voice and the vulnerability of her lyrics, which continue to focus on failed relationships.
Or perhaps it has more to do with the glimpses of genius she does offer, found here on the gorgeous Leonard, almost-rocker Serpents and the slowly-building-to-dramatic-catharsis All I Can. Van Etten’s wandering melodies are like heavy exhalations of emotions (though rarely “breathy”), staying low and close to where they began. Sometimes the lack of definition and the deluge of words grow tedious, but in these songs, all lushly arranged, as is the entire album, the effect is nothing short of riveting.
Top track: All I Can
