Sharon Van Etten & The Attachment Theory
After six albums, indie singer-songwriter Sharon Van Etten’s decision to incorporate a band name into the title of her seventh reflects nothing more than her decision to incorporate the people under that name into the creation, as well as the playing, of songs.
“Nothing more” encompasses a lot, though: Teeny Lieberson (formerly of Brooklyn band TEEN), bassist Devra Hoff, and drummer Jorge Balbi (the latter two key players on Van Etten’s previous album, 2022’s We’ve Been Going About This All Wrong) collaborate with Van Etten to expand the horizon and enrich the atmosphere.
That atmosphere feels both foggy and floodlit on the opening track, “Live Forever,” with Lieberson and Charley Damski (another musician with Van Etten experience) linking the fingers of synthesizer hands over Hoff and Lambi’s menacingly steady rhythms, while Van Etten elevates her meaningful murmurs into existential moans.
Closer to the ground, “I Can’t Imagine (Why You Feel This Way)” reconfigures the Human League’s idea of plaintive plastique disco into fright-movie funk, with Van Etten in the lead role as the damsel not entirely sure what kind of distress she might be in and even less sure if she can be saved.
Other songs imply other influences: the slight twitch in the beat of “Idiot Box” recalls post-John Cale Velvet Underground and mellower Yo La Tengo; “Indio” adds a psychedelic swirl to the gutsy female-fronted alt-rock of 1990s bands like Helium; and “Fading Beauty” melds Kate Bush’s ethereality to the Weather Station’s controlled dark-pop storms.
Producer Marta Salogni provides the dynamic expertise she’s brought to Depeche Mode and Björk, and the Church, a fabled London studio, lends an ancient-analog air even when the instruments are electronic.
Still, Sharon Van Etten & The Attachment Theory is very much about the names in the title, and how their artistic connections create the emotional connections of the modern rock and pop Van Etten and her band make to mark their human progress.
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