Sharon Van Etten & The Attachment Theory Release Self-Titled Album.

10 Feb

Sharon Van Etten “is going all-in with her band, the Attachment Theory” (Rolling Stone). Their new album, Sharon Van Etten & The Attachment Theory, is out today via Jagjaguar, and last night, they appeared on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon performing 'Southern Life (What It Must Be Like).' The song has been praised by Stereogum as “a heavy, churning synth-rock jam” and a “ripping rock track” by FLOOD.

This is the first album Sharon has ever written and recorded with her band — Jorge Balbi (drums, machines), Devra Hoff (bass, vocals), and Teeny Lieberson (synth, piano, guitar, vocals) — allowing her the freedom that comes by letting go. The themes are timeless, classic Sharon, but the sounds are new, wholly realized and sharp as glass. They recorded with producer Marta Salogni at Eurythmics’ former studio, The Church, a perfect match for the band’s mystical mix of electronics and analog textures. As Billboard aptly described the sound, “Chilled, angular ‘80s-style synth and sharp, punchy drums offset the warmth of Van Etten’s crystalline and lissome vocals, and when they meet at a song’s crescendo — as they do on 'Live Forever' and ‘Afterlife'— it’s a real headrush.”

Reflecting on this new artistic frame of mind and the art of collectively writing together with her band, Van Etten muses, “Sometimes it's exciting, sometimes it's scary, sometimes you feel stuck. It's like every day feels a little different – just being at peace with whatever you're feeling and whoever you are and how you relate to people in that moment. If I can just keep a sense of openness while knowing that my feelings change every day, that is all I can do right now. That and try to be the best person I can be while letting other people be who they are and not taking it personally and just being."

With Sharon Van Etten & The Attachment Theory, Van Etten deepens the discourse that animates so much of her catalogue, exploring what it is to be simply human.