LOVE IS A BATTLEFIELD

Sharon Van Etten’s volleys of song. Victoria Segal ducks and covers.

BECAUSE I WAS IN LOVE

★★★★

(Language Of Stone, 2009) In communion with early Smog and Elliott Smith, Van Etten’s haunted voice and guitar sketched out the treacherous imbalances of an abusive relationship, and on Same Dream and Consolation Prize, charged them with luminous beauty.

EPIC ★★★★

(Ba Da Bing, 2010) Looking her past in the eye, marking out a new future, Epic began with A Crime’s bold defiance – “never let myself love like that again.” 2021’s Epic Ten reissue included covers by Idles, Fiona Apple and Courtney Barnett.

TRAMP ★★★★

(Jagjaguwar, 2012) Produced by The National’s Aaron Dessner, giving Van Etten all the space and time she needed. The Cat Power-like Give Out and psychic purge of Serpents (“you’ll stay frozen in time”) were further exorcisms of past harms.

ARE WE THERE ★★★★

(Jagjaguwar, 2014) A painful transition of a record, with Your Love Is Killing Me and Break Me, this contains some of Van Etten’s most untethered vocals and most visceral – yet beautiful – songwriting. No question mark.

REMIND ME TOMORROW ★★★★

(Jagjaguwar, 2019) Produced by John Congleton, Van Etten’s fifth album felt like a break with the past, musically and personally. Comeback Kid and Seventeen showed she could even deliver stylish – yet devastating – synth-pop hits.

We’ve Been Going About This All Wrong is reviewed on page 84.