Album Review: Sharon Van Etten – Remind Me Tomorrow (Jagjaguar)

Indie darling Sharon Van Etten returns with her 5^th album and her first since 2014’s Are We There.

Are We There found Van Etten dabbling with synths, beats and other electronica, but still basing her instrumentation around more traditional guitars, pianos and drums. This time around, Sharon, along with producer John Congleton, has jettisoned those guitars and drums in favour of an almost completely electronically-generated soundscape.

Fortunately, the jittery, skittering electronica heard on tracks like No One’s Easy To Love only serve to heighten Van Etten’s sleek, sonorous vocals. Her soaring voice on that song provides a perfect juxtaposition between the somewhat impersonal music and the intimate vocal performance.

In other words, none of Van Etten’s emotional power is lost in this new production approach, in fact it may be magnified.

Check out the eerie, echoing “voices” that ripple through Memorial Day. They set a spooky template as Van Etten’s main vocal sets off in a reverb-drenched ether.

On Comeback Kid, she gets in touch with her inner Depeche Mode. It’s a synth-driven tune about going back home and realizing you’ve changed, but old friend and neighbours still look at your old self. “Don’t look back”, she warns herself.

Later, on Seventeen, the artist addresses her teenage self, one who had just moved to New York City to set out on her musical adventure. View the stunning video by Maureen Towey when you can, but really, Sharon’s melodramatic vocal performance, along with the propulsive beats and squealing synths gets the message across.

Speaking of synths, Jupiter 4 is named after a vintage Roland synth. Donna Missal first recorded the song as Jupiter, but Sharon reclaims it as her own with another dramatic performance, singng “I’ve been waiting my whole life for someone like you”, while the sythn sounds swirl and dance around her vocal.

A favourite of mine is Malibu, a romantic ode to getting away in a little red car while listening to The Black Crowes. Musically its more Berlin than Bruce as she and her beau head down thunder road.

Van Etten has filled up the time between releases with a number of acting projects and becoming a new mother.

The album’s final track, Stay, is about her new son, and the only song written on guitar (all others written on keyboards or synths). It’s still synth and beat driven, but serves as a lovely coda for an album that sees the new year getting a strong start thanks to this excellent early release.

Marty Duda