Sharon Van Etten

Pitchfork Best 2012 on Sharon Van Etten

#36 Produced by the National’s Aaron Dessner and featuring a cabal of Brooklyn-based players (Beirut’s Zach Condon, Doveman’s Thomas Bartlett, Julianna Barwick), Sharon Van Etten’s third full-length concerns the mechanics of bad love-- forces germane, maybe, to all love: fixation, isolation, deep, cataclysmic longing...full article here

Pretty Much Amazing Best 2012 on Sharon Van Etten

#24 Tramp

Spinner Best of 2012 on Sharon Van Etten

#6 A year's worth of couch-surfing and touring led to Tramp, an emotional road map for the sullen marauder and long-distance couple alike...full article here

Stereogum Best of 2012 on Sharon Van Etten

#42 Tramp (Jagjaguwar)

American Songwriter's Top 50 Albums Of 2012 on Sharon Van Etten

#6 At first, Tramp seems like a fairly provocative title for a warmly affecting album of heartbroken indie folk songs. But in this case, Tramp’s connotation is in the “vagabond” sense of the word, rather than, say, “harlot.” Before recording the album, Sharon Van Etten spent more than a year without a permanent home, loved, lost, kept her stuff in storage and cultivated some callouses. The resulting album following this nomadic period is intimate and vulnerable, but contains some of the richest material in Van Etten’s repertoire to date. Recorded with The National’s Bryce Dessner, Tramp marks the beginning of a more ambitious approach for Van Etten, whose new bag of tricks include the ornate waltz “Leonard,” and “Serpents,” a track that finds the New Jersey native rocking out and turning the volume up louder than ever...full article here

TheOwlMag on Sharon Van Etten

Sharon Van Etten Tramp [Jagjaguwar]

On Tramp, her third LP and debut on the Jagjaguwar label, Sharon Van Etten‘s growth as an artist is clear. Her songwriting and gritty yet seraphic voice shines with the confidence of a woman more comfortable within her own skin.

Produced by The National’s Aaron Dessner. The album’s list of collaborators reads as a who’s who of respected artists like Wye Oak’s Jenn Wasner, The Walkmen’s Matt Barrick and more. Beirut’s Zack Condon contributes vocals on “We Are Fine,” wherein friends encourage each other to soldier on. “We’re alright, we’re alright,” they assure each other. Numbers like “Serpent” is as close to rocking out as Van Etten gets on the album, and that’s okay. She’s at her best during the more melancholy, quieter numbers. When the longing that’s palpable in her voice appears, her lyrical mastery and guitar take center stage. “Give Out” is one such track “In my way, you’re the reason why I’ll move to the city or why I’ll need to leave,” the sorrow in her tone, both discernable and relatable.

Van Etten describes Tramp as “scattered” owing to the fact that she would write songs while on tour, over a two-year period. Living an almost nomadic existence after having given up her apartment and crashing with friends. Sharon Van Etten‘s talent as a songsmith, her maturity as an artist mold these scattered pieces together, the result of which is a record full of confidence as well as nuanced lushness. A comforting place for us to get lost. From beginning to end and back again.

Amoeba "Music We Like" on Sharon Van Etten

Sharon Van Etten, Tramp (CD) It could be easy to label Sharon Van Etten a moody singer-songwriter — she concisely conveys the way a lover can affect your entire life’s outcome in standout "Give Out" with the line “You’re the reason why I’ll move to the city, or why I’ll need to leave.” But she also proves herself a songwriter capable of conveying many moods across Tramp, which shifts from the dreamy "Kevin’s" to rocking "Serpents" or swaying, uplifting "Leonard" without missing a beat. Aided by tasteful production that layers warm reverb onto her...more at amoeba.com

KCRW's Jason Bentley on Sharon Van Etten

Played "Warsaw" 11/20/2012 9:10 am

NME Recommended Albums on Sharon Van Etten

Sharon Van Etten - 'Tramp' scored 9 / 10 Unless you’re closely attuned to the community of emotionally literate New York musicians who ride their hearts into battle, you might not have heard of Sharon Van Etten. The New Jersey-born artist has sung with The Antlers and The National, and released her first record, ‘Because I Was In Love’, in 2009. Her second, ‘Epic’, arrived in 2010. Both concerned a five-year relationship with an abusive ex who would break her instruments and tell her she wasn’t good enough to be a musician...more at nme.com

Buzz Bands LA on Sharon Van Etten

Tuesday things: ► Sharon Van Etten and the War on Drugs visit the Avalon Hollywood in a double bill of two artists with gorgeous (and critically praised) albums. Van Etten's third album "Tramp" came out earlier this year to almost universal acclaim; the War on Drugs is still riding a wave of attention for August's "Slave Ambient." ► Of Montreal is coming off exhilarating shows at SXSW where the band performed its 2005 album "The Sunlandic Twins," but tonight at the Wiltern, where they are appearing with Deerhoof more here

Quit Mumbling on Sharon Van Etten

Tweet Brooklyn-based singer-songwriter Sharon Van Etten was the dreamy voice you heard featured on the new National track we posted last week. Off of her 2010 release Epic , album closer "Love More" has been covered live by acts like Bon Iver and the aforementioned National, and it's easy to hear why. There's a a Fiona Apple smokiness to Van Etten's vocals in the song that builds, boy does it build, more here

Quit Mumbling on Sharon Van Etten

"Give Out" is one of those songs you have to start and stop several times throughout it's entirety to properly understand just how poignant, honest, and deeply cutting the writing is. In fact, the same can be said for the entirety of Sharon Van Etten's latest release, Tramp. Explaining my feelings towards "Give Out" wouldn't do it justice, because most of you reading this don't know me, and therefore I would accomplish nothing by simply telling you how much I can identify with it. However, for the sake of wanting to showcase just how incredible I think more here

Quit Mumbling on Sharon Van Etten

Tweet Brooklyn-based singer-songwriter Sharon Van Etten was the dreamy voice you heard featured on the new National track we posted last week. Off of her 2010 release Epic , album closer "Love More" has been covered live by acts like Bon Iver and the aforementioned National, and it's easy to hear why. There's a a Fiona Apple smokiness to Van Etten's vocals in the song that builds, boy does it build, more at elbo.ws

Quit Mumbling on Sharon Van Etten

"Give Out" is one of those songs you have to start and stop several times throughout it's entirety to properly understand just how poignant, honest, and deeply cutting the writing is. In fact, the same can be said for the entirety of Sharon Van Etten's latest release, Tramp. Explaining my feelings towards "Give Out" wouldn't do it justice, because most of you reading this don't know me, and therefore I would accomplish nothing by simply telling you how much I can identify with it. However, for the sake of wanting to showcase just how incredible I think more at elbo.ws