Yeah, I know a bit of an ‘Alan Sparhawk With Trampled by Turles Situation’ – or ‘ASWTBTS; as we call it in the Journalism Business: I have also seen this record named as the self-titled debit album by Sharon van Etten & The Attachment Theory. At least in this case the album’s title is never just listed as ‘& The Attachment Theory’, so Ms Van Etten isn’t quite up there with Sparhawk when it comes to awkward album titles. However, ‘Sharon van Etten & The Attachment Theory’ is referred to by Wikipedia as “the seventh studio album by American singer-songwriter Sharon Van Etten” and – even more importantly – listed as solely a Sharon van Etten album on Bandcamp, so that’s what we’re going with.
Oh, and you shouldn’t capitalise the ‘Van’ in a name when you’re writing the name in full, only when you’re only writing the surname. So I will continue to call one of the greatest music artists of recent times ‘Sharon van Etten’, and Ms. Van Etten when I’m perhaps being more formal. Yeah, I know that Ms. Van Etten (see?) is American, and those fuckers don’t know how to fucking spell (see entry #26), but the least I can do is try and teach them how to spell their own name, no??
But, yeah, whatever you want to call Van Etten’s seventh album (and sixth on the Necessary Evil countdown) and/or The Attachment Theory’s debut – I guess – it’s another wallop out of the park for an artist whose back catalogue could rival (and often beat) any other musical artist of the last 15 years.
I’m sorry, I feel like I repeat myself every three or so years whenever Sharon van Etten and/or Ms. Van Etten decides we’ve been well enough behaved to earn another record, but ‘& The Attachment Theory’ is just fucking incredible once again. Van Etten’s craftmanship and otherworldly dominance over rock songs, arrangements and melodies has long been established, and now opening up her creativity to The Attachment Theory (Devra Hoff, Jorge Castellano and Kristina Lieberson) only increases her powers. The album sounds looser, hazier and slightly more spontaneous than her previous ones, and despite being mainly concerned with anxieties and tensions (this is 2025, after all), it still sounds like it was an absolute crack to record and perform. To be honest, Sharon could have just released a ‘We’ve Been Going About This All Wrong‘ carbon copy and still be ranked high, but the fact she’s so open to (gentle) musical left turns bodes well for her incredible hit rate continuing for the next 15 years.
However, I really object to her changing her ‘We’ve Been Going About This All Wrong‘ hairstyle. She ate with that cut.
2023 #27, 2022 #9 (-8), 2021 #16, 2019 #8, 2014 #3
‘Standard Sharon Score’, or ‘SSS’ as we say in The Business. The Kids weren’t quite as impressed, only scoring it 75.
I have no idea what you’re getting that from, but I would fight to the death your right to say it.
Necessary Evil 