![]() You said: ‘Holy shit – you almost died’.” One of the enduring attractions of Van Etten’s songwriting is this ability to express her own emotions while leaving enough space for the listener to interpret and impose their own meaning. That passion runs through all its ten songs, from the poignant piano-led opener I Told You Everything, in which she’s confiding secrets to a stranger in a bar and curiously, yet typically, does not reveal the secret itself merely the reaction to it: “I told you everything. ![]() It is, above all, a record “about pursuing your passions,” as she puts it. It’s a delicate balance, but one that’s explained by the fact she wrote and recorded much of this album while pregnant with her first child, completing the lyrics while contemplating her newborn baby. There’s still darkness and doubt in her songs – how could there not be for a new mother bringing a baby into today’s uncertain world – but the anxieties of the younger artist are tempered by optimism and hope, courage and confidence. She’s grown into an accomplished actress (in two seasons of Netflix series The OA and, as herself, in David Lynch’s Twin Peaks revival), become a soundtrack composer (she scored Katherine Dieckmann’s film Strange Weather), gone back to school (studying for a psychology degree at Brooklyn College in order to become a mental health counsellor) and, most life-changingly of all, become a mother. ![]() ![]() In the four years since her last release, the EP I Don’t Want To Let You Down, it’s not just her musical backing that’s changed. Where once she was a wounded but resilient surveyor of romantic breakup, working within a gentle Americana-tinged musical framework (she’s still described in her Allmusic bio as a folk singer), Remind Me Tomorrow introduces listeners to a strong, confident artist who still channels senstitivity but can also turn her hand to anthems carried along on big drums and synthesisers. A decade after emerging with intimate songs of heartbreak set to sparse accompaniments, Sharon Van Etten has grown into a very different woman, and a very different artist. ![]()
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