Sharon Van Etten’s favourite albums
Sometimes, we need music to dance to, music for escapism, music for distraction. At other times, we need music to make us feel seen, music to feel, music to coach and comfort us through the world and everything it throws at us. If you’re looking for the latter, Sharon Van Etten is your best bet.
Before Phoebe Bridgers began making musical melancholy, before the birth of Boygenius, before Julia Jacklin became a big sister to 20-somethings everywhere, there was Van Etten. Since the late 2000s, she has been penning gorgeous guitar soundscapes with lyrics steeped in vulnerability, a sonic comfort to all who listen.
Van Etten’s work has come to mean so much to so many. For those looking to get to know the songwriter a little better, she once named the songs that mean the most to her during a conversation with Vinyl Junkies. Perhaps expectedly, she includes some real indie icons on her list, but her picks aren’t predictable.
Rather than naming a Velvet Underground record, as most artists within the alternative sphere might, Van Etten named a solo album by John Cale. Her pick was his 1974 record Fear, which she said reminded her that “even when you play with another band… you have many different faces.”
The record certainly serves as a reminder of that, proving Cale’s capabilities outside of Lou Reed’s accompaniment. It’s a great pick from Van Etten, showing that she appreciates the classics but also looks beyond them, appreciating Cale’s work beyond the pioneering art-rock of the Velvets.
Van Etten also shared her love for another alternative icon from across the pond, Nick Cave. She picked out No More Shall We Part as one of the albums she holds dearest, noting how it allowed her to fall in love with Cave. “I was always overwhelmed by the dark, punk noise,” she explained, “and then I heard the heartbroken lover. And I totally understood.”
Further proving her penchant for softer forms of rock, and for picks ever so slightly out of the ordinary, Van Etten’s final pick was Fleetwood Mac’s Tusk. The 1979 record was far less successful than their previous offering, Rumours, and has never quite amassed the same mammoth reputation as its predecessor. Still, it made Van Etten’s “heart burst” with its melodies and harmonies.
Like most of her peers, Van Etten is indebted to her indie rock predecessors, to the stylings of Cave and Cale and the soft rock of Fleetwood Mac. It’s easy to see how each artist has influenced her own indie rock stylings, with equally heart-bursting melodies and heartbroken tales.
