Wednesday, January 27, 2010

Sharon van Etten

Sharon van Etten’s Because I Was in Love unexpectedly turned into one of my favorite records last year. It’s translucently simple, full of light and clarity and these beautiful serpentine harmonies that Sharon sings with herself…Greg Weeks produced it and boy did he do a good job shining the light on her.

Anyway, she did pretty well in Blurt’s year-end rating (#36) and she’s playing some shows with Damon & Naomi, so got to I write a little show preview on her here


There will be a longer write-up when I go to the show in Cambridge on Sunday.

Meanwhile, here she is singing “Keep”


What a pretty voice, eh?

3 comments:

Jean-Luc Garbo said...

Wow, I like her. I can't say pretty, though. On that song it's more like ghostly is the right word. I'm impressed. People comparing her to Cat Power are doing SVE a disadvantage. I'd put her on my list next to Marissa Nadler. I can't believe I forgot about this album when PFM reviewed it 'cos now I want a copy! I hope that concert goes well because I'd like to know how it goes. Have you seen D&N live before, Jen?

jenniferpkelly said...

Yeah, I don't like the Cat Power comparison either. She's got one of those voices that seems instantly familiar but also resists pretty much every comparison you put up. I have not seen Damon & Naomi live before. I didn't realize Pitchfork reviewed the van Etten. Good for them. It's a good record and not one that their readership would naturally want to read about.

Jean-Luc Garbo said...

I hope you stay for D&N. I saw them on that tour with Boris and they were quite good. Their cover of While My Guitar Gently Weeps is really nice. I'd hope that the Espers imprimateur would be more than enough to get the attention of the PFM audience. By any chance, have you heard SVE's home recordings album?