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For all the attention that was paid to her 2012 break-through

album Tramp, Sharon Van Etten returned to the studio ready and

eager to turn another corner, delve deeper, and write with more

honesty and vulnerability than ever. It's a unique power of Van

Etten's; she creates a bond with the listener that few contemporary

musicians can match. The result of that effort was Are We There, a

self-produced album of exceptional intimacy, sublime generosity,

and immense breadth.

Are We There turns ten this year and reasserts itself as a one of

her most powerful and timeless collections. It is clear from the

opening chords in the first song, "Afraid of Nothing", that we are

witnessing a new awareness, a sign of Van Etten in full stride,

writing, producing, and performing from a place that seems almost

mythical, were it not so touchable and real. Always direct, and

never shying away even from the most personally painful narratives,

many of the songs deal with seemingly impossible decisions,

anticipation, and then resolution. She sings of the nature of desire,

memory, of being lost, emptiness, of promises and loyalty, fear and

change, of healing and the true self, violence and sanctuary, waiting,

of silence. Amidst all that truly brutal honestly, Van Etten finds

moments of levity, as she always does. "Every Time the Sun Comes

Up" started out as a lark but lifts the album at it's close, completes

the world she's let us into, and resets us gently for whatever might

follow. It has, since then, become an indelible staple of Van Etten's

live shows.

It's enough to live your music without taking on the role of

producer as well, but Van Etten knew it was time to make a record

entirely on her terms. At the same time, Van Etten did recognize

this didn't mean having to go it alone, and she assembled a beloved,

now-celebrated community to bring her vision to life. To record,

Van Etten found a kindred spirit in veteran music producer Stewart

Lerman. Originally working together on Boardwalk Empire, they

gently moved into new roles, rallying around the idea of making a

record together in Lerman's studio in New Jersey. Lerman's studio

expertise gave Van Etten the freedom to make Are We There the

way she imagined. Van Etten also enlisted the individual talents of

her band, consisting of Heather Woods Broderick, Doug Keith and

Zeke Hutchins, and brought in friends Dave Hartley and Adam

Granduciel from The War on Drugs, Jonathan Meiberg

(Shearwater), Jana Hunter (Lower Dens), Peter Broderick,

Mackenzie Scott (Torres), Stuart Bogie, Jacob C. Morris and

Mickey Freeze. The incomparable Richard Swift brought it all

home, working with Van Etten on the final mix.

The artist who speaks in such a voice is urging us to do something,

to take hold and to go deeper. Living in this way, the questions of

life remain alive, as close and steady as breathing. Many of the

ballads of old are as dark as pitch, and people for whom the issues

of life and death were as vivid as flame wrote them. You could turn

off the electricity, remove all the instruments and Sharon's voice

and words would remain. They connect her to the mystic stratum

which flows just beneath the everyday, they are as powerful today

as ten years ago, and they're sure to endure for years to come.