From the off, Sharon Van Etten & The Attachment Theory is sonically different from Van Etten’s previous work. Writing and recording in total collaboration with her band for the first time, Van Etten finds the freedom that comes by letting go. The result of that liberation is an exhilarating new dimension of sound and songwriting. The themes are timeless, classic Sharon – life and living, love and being loved – but the sounds are new, wholly realized and sharp as glass.
“Sharon Van Etten & The Attachment Theory” is the first record Van Etten has fully written with a band. The members of The Attachment Theory (bassist Devra Hoff, keyboardist/backing vocalist Teeny Lieberson, and drummer Jorge Balbi) were Van Etten’s longtime backing band when she was touring and recording as a solo artist, but for her upcoming record, she welcomed them into the writing process. For Van Etten, the process of letting go was difficult, but ultimately freeing. “Writing and recording in total collaboration with her band for the first time, Van Etten finds the freedom that comes by letting go—letting go of her normal modus operandi or the need for control or attachment to the outcome. No safety net,” reads a note about the album.
What that sounds like in practice is a looser, shaggier sound than we’ve ever heard from Van Etten, incorporating more synths and electronic experimentation. The two singles released so far, “Afterlife” and “Southern Life (What It Must Be Like),” are like cousins rather than siblings, and that’s a good thing. Hopefully, the rest of the record will be similarly surprising.
‘Sharon Van Etten & The Attachment Theory ‘, out February 7th on Jagjaguwar.
The Fat Angel Sings 