The Best Of Sharon Van Etten
Sometimes a comp has been gestating for a long time. In the case of The Best Of Sharon Van Etten there were several reasons. One is that in addition to her seven studio albums, she releases a lot of singles, and her work is really consistent, so I didn’t want to leave out something great. Another is that some of her stuff grows on you, so I kept revisiting what I came up with. There are also a lot of songs she’s done two versions of (sometimes re-recording a track as a duet) and she tours a LOT so there was a large volume of live stuff to go through.
I think the first time I became aware of her was on her Live A.V. Club performance doing justice to Stop Draggin’ My Heart Around with Shearwater. It was my affection for Tom Petty that spurred me to finish this collection. The first season of the Vince Vaughn TV series BAD MONKEY has artists doing revamped versions of Tom Petty songs, and the second track here is Sharon doing I Won't Back Down. It would have been a disservice to not include it, so it’s a good thing I took my time.
Van Etten is also an actress having appeared on the Netflix series The OA, and in the feature films Never Rarely Sometimes Always, and How It Ends. , and composed the film score for the film Strange Weather.
She’s currently billing herself as SHARON VAN ETTEN & The Attachment Theory and is performing sold out shows with Love Spells opening. On this CD-length compilation, she’s also joined by Fiona Apple, Norah Jones, & Angel Olsen.
During The Covid Lockdown she filled in for the then recently departed Adam Schlesinger for the live benefit performance Jersey 4 Jersey, which I’ll include on my upcoming Fountains Of Wayne post. Here’s a link to that wonderful performance: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xfsjiMsRMtI
While I’m at it, here’s the Live A.V. Club clip that started it all: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RbP3S4pRcTE
