Sharon Van Etten’s voice is dark and sullen. She haunts gently, but this suppleness translates much louder after repeated listens. Eventually it becomes huge—like she’s already become a star, like the world knows her name, like the syllables that wrap around her soft guitar strumming comprise an ageless tune passed down through generations. Sharon Van Etten is not quite a star . . . yet.
Because I Was In Loveis a collection of tunes that are as intimate as a bottle of wine over candlelight. They are dire campfire tunes focusing almost solely on love.
The album begins with “I Wish I Knew,” a simple folk tune that feels like it is torn from her soul. Though her voice is tender and true and sweetly smooth, it becomes painfully evident that, for Van Etten, singing is never simple. She pulls emotion deep from within and pummels the listener.
Though a lyric sheet was not provided, this is the perfect album to curl up on your bed and gaze at the words on the page as they spill from her mouth. You follow each word, being mindful of never getting too far ahead or falling too far behind, and you connect with the truth that pours from the artist.
Everything on Because I Was In Love is real. It is reinforced on every song. Track three and four flow like a broken love story. Though “For You” and “I Fold” contradict each other in their sentiments, they are placed next to each other, seemingly for more reasons than just aesthetics.
On “For You,” Van Etten’s repeated chorus claims of “I’d wait for you” seems to have fallen short by the time “I Fold” begins. On this one she sings about being “broken down,” though musically the song is less stark than the words, much like the light at the end of the tunnel that is a broken heart. She sings sadly, but finds bits and pieces of hope.
Obviously, every song comes from this place. It is a broken-hearted, dreary, yet loving folk album. Van Etten has mastered this folk thing. It seems to come so easy, like this was what she was meant to do. It is part of her being.
“Tornado” is another example of this. It opens with a tender plucking of guitar. Her unidentifiable words speak loudly, and we are won over very quickly. By the time the “Tornado, tornado, tornado” chorus spins through, we sense a tension that is unrelenting and crushing.
This is why the songs are so relatable, why they seem so familiar. We have all been there. We just can’t get it out like Van Etten. She holds the magic within her—because she was in love.
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