Sharon Van Etten - Epic

  by Jamie Rowland

published: 14 / 9 / 2010

Label: Ba Da Bing
Format: CD

intro

Haunting and compelling second album from Brooklyn-based folk musician and singer-songwriter, Sharon Van Etten

Another example in a seemingly ever-growing list of great musical endeavours coming out of Brooklyn, New York, Sharon Van Etten’s 'Epic' is a thoroughly enjoyable slice of neo-folk which is an incredibly fulfilling album considering it barely reaches past half an hour in length. Van Etten’s second album, 'Epic', explores the painful and thorny world of romance – not a new concept for an album, by any means – but her songwriting and delivery are so confident and arresting as to make the subject seem fresh and vibrant. Her music lies somewhere between the earlier albums of Entrance (aka Guy Blakeslee) Amy Mann and Nina Nastasia – perhaps a lazy comparison given they are both female singer-songwriters from New York, but I certainly hear elements of her work in that of Van Etten, although with a rockier edge coming in at times, on tracks like ‘Don’t Do It’. If you’re just coming out of a relationship and have pencilled in a bit of time sat staring out the window and watching the rain come down as you wallow in melancholy this autumn, I can’t recommend a new album more highly than 'Epic'. Haunting, beautiful, enjoyably miserable – but with that thin slice of optimism running through it that means you won’t be throwing yourself through that window just yet.

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