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Jul 17, 2014Self-production and guests like Loudon Wainwright III and the Roches scales back Are We There in all the right ways, letting the drama ooze from vocal performance above all else.
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Jul 2, 2014Hearing Van Etten’s performance on [Your Love Is Killing Me] and several others are downright shiver-inducing.
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MagnetJun 13, 2014Her fourth and most accomplished album to date maps a course to know-not-where in the most emotionally direct, imaginative way possible. [No. 110, p.60]
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Q MagazineJun 13, 2014As on Tramp, Van Etten's lyrics remain similarly frank. [Jul 2014, p.117]
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Jun 5, 2014It reveals yet another side to this musician, who has continued to pull back layer after layer since she first appeared on the scene.
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May 29, 2014The first four songs on Are We There don’t work as well as the later ones. Ultimately this doesn’t hurt, because the later ones are among her very best.
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May 29, 2014A richly rewarding set from a songwriter growing with each release.
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May 28, 2014Written and recorded herself, Are We There, her fourth full-length, is a Sharon Van Etten record through-and-through.
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May 28, 2014Indecision and despair may be her favorite subjects to write about, but musically, Van Etten has crafted an assured, resounding triumph.
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May 28, 2014The lyrics, direct and occasionally graceless, find a deeper resonance in Van Etten's unhurried delivery.
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May 27, 2014In answer to the question posed by the album title, Van Etten's characters are still in transit, spinning their wheels, uncertain of their destination. No wonder their soundtrack brims with turbulence.
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May 27, 2014Van Etten tackles heartache with refreshing sharpness, distilling complex sentiments into something beautifully simple.
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May 27, 2014For a wallow in obsessive love, it’s hard to top “Your Love Is Killing Me” on Sharon Van Etten’s fourth album, Are We There.
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May 27, 2014While still immersed in songs of emotional ravagement and betrayal, the confidence of her performances and spectrum of sounds represented here suggest a complete graduation from troubled, uncertain roots into a place where she can deliver her songs with a powerful, borderless command.
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May 27, 2014Are We There offers an artist in full command of her voice and her instrument, a woman who knows exactly what she wants to offer listeners and who isn’t afraid to accompany the barest streaks of sunlight with thousands of clouds.
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May 27, 2014Van Etten has gained in confidence and widened her scope, and the results are impressive.
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May 27, 2014Are We There is definitely an album that will reveal itself to you with closer attention and multiple listens, as opposed to Tramp, which was a little catchier with its obsessions right from the get-go.
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May 27, 2014Are We There functions best as the portrait of an artist coming into her own, while hopefully putting some of her demons to rest.
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May 27, 2014It has little in the way of variation, even less in the way of optimism, but feels completely whole despite that lacking.
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May 27, 2014She has never sounded more confident. Van Etten’s fourth album marks the true arrival of a singer who’s been on her way for a long time, and thinking of her as anything less than a career artist is certainly a vast underestimation.
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May 27, 2014Are We There may be her most present-tense album to date, her most immediate and urgent--the peak of a steady upward trajectory.
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May 27, 2014While Are We There can be taxing at points, by its end, you’ll be overcome by the feeling that you’ve shared in something profound.
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May 27, 2014Her self-produced fourth album executes another dramatic confidence leap.
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May 27, 2014Those happy to go with Van Etten will be rewarded by swooping pop noir, groaning organs and a sax solo, plus considerable hard-won wisdom.
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May 23, 2014It's a fraught listen, though, that's for sure, and Van Etten's to be applauded on her boldness and vision, which nudges closer and closer to something truly remarkable and game-changing. If this isn't it, it's damn close.
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May 23, 2014Are We There cuts deep into the skin of its creator and finds Van Etten more exposed than ever.
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May 23, 2014Her magnificent fourth LP grows her trademark examinations of romantic decay to cathedral-like scale.
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May 23, 2014Are We There will make sure to conjure it up and hold you rapt as you trundle through it together.
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May 23, 2014Discernible throughout Are We There is the sense that she is operating with more levity and confidence than ever before, and a song that ends with a joke, a studio outtake and the sound of laughter is the perfect way to see it out.
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May 22, 2014Van Etten's melodies often feel as if they're not quite taking flight, and rarely cause you to catch your breath the way her lyrics do.
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MojoMay 22, 2014There's alot of her here, and the connections are all her own. [Jun 2014, p.89]
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May 22, 2014Are We There is one of those rare albums when you stop listening to the music as simply a combination of chords, melodies and carefully constructed instrumentation, but as essential, emotional communication from one person to another.
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UncutMay 22, 2014Are We There's subtler songs point to a painfully well-honed understanding of what drives and degrades long-term love. [Jun 2014, p.70]
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May 22, 2014It’s a truly fascinating listen.
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May 22, 2014One of the most vivid, involving, troubling albums about the trials of love in recent memory.
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May 22, 2014She gives everything, and it’s impossible to be unmoved.
Awards & Rankings
User score distribution:
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Positive: 72 out of 77
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Mixed: 2 out of 77
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Negative: 3 out of 77
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Mar 23, 2015
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Nov 30, 2014
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May 28, 2014