release date: May 26, 2014
format: cd
[album rate: 4 / 5] [4,04]
producer: Sharon Van Etten, Stewart Lerman
label: Jagjaguwar - nationality: USA
Track highlights: 1. "Afraid of Nothing" (live) - 2. "Taking Chances" (4,5 / 5) - 3. "Your Love Is Killing Me" - 4. "Our Love" - 5. "Tarifa" - 6. "I Love You But I'm Lost" (live) - 8. "Break Me" - 11. "Every Time the Sun Comes Up"
4th studio album [not counting her 4-5 non-label and self-released albums and mini-albums as CD-R handouts] by Sharon Van Etten released on the independent label Jagjaguwar.
Stylistically, Van Etten embraces the huge singer / songwriter pool of indie pop and indie folk with equal bits of alt. country and alt. rock.
The album was met by almost universal acclaim, and was Van Etten's commercial breakthrough album peaking at position #25 on the Billboard 200 and as high as #6 on the Top Alternative Albums chart list in the US, and the album was enlisted on allmusic.com's list of "Favorite Indie Pop and Indie Rock Albums" alongside acclaimed artists like Lykke Li, Fear of Men, Future Islands, Little Dragon, Owen Pallett, Swans, and St. Vincent.
The album has really grown on me over the past 3-4 years, and I must confess to have re-discovered Van Etten a bit late as someone to pay attention to, and Are We There was also my first encounter with her music. At first I found her a bit colourless and anonymous, but it seems she has kicked in a door and invited me in 'cause all I hear now is truly fine musicianship. Her voice is quite original - somewhere between strong female artists like Patti Smith, Cat Power, PJ Harvey and Lana Del Rey. Her tonal singing voice contains the strong blatant explosiveness of Smith and Harvey but also the mellow-inner-felt melancholic alto of Power and Del Rey. Some have mentioned her as a female counterpart to Nick Cave. I don't consent to that comparison but understand what people imply with a "dark" lyrical universe, though I find the three former artists share more of the same characteristics. Some times I think more of the female Stuart Staples, but why the need to compare? Van Etten is great on her own terms. Just leave her time to find the door in. The album is easily her best album out and a natural contender to album of the year.
This is an extraordinary and highly recommendable gem.
[ allmusic.com, Q, NME, Rolling Stone 4 / 5 stars ]
2014 Favourite releases: 1. Ukendt Kunstner Forbandede ungdom - 2. Kent Tigerdrottningen - 3. Sharon Van Etten Are We There
