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Feb 15, 2012This isn't just her finest album, but one of early 2012's best.
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Feb 2, 2012It's a wonderful record, a colossal achievement, and features some of the most breathtaking, moving and downright beautiful music you'll hear all year.
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Feb 2, 2012A gorgeous, fully realized expression of her potential.
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Feb 10, 2012Tramp is simply her most fully-realized album yet, and that's all there is to it.
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Feb 7, 2012Though it rarely rises above a whisper, Van Etten's captivating vocals and Dessner's subtle production ensure that Tramp is never remotely sleepy.
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Feb 7, 2012For the most part, the production serves to accent rather than overwhelm Van Etten's greatest asset, her voice.
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MojoFeb 27, 2012[A] very fine third album. [Mar 2012, p.98]
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Q MagazineFeb 22, 2012An arresting record for challenging times. [Mar 2012, p.113]
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Feb 16, 2012Tramp isn't as seizing as Epic, its songs aren't as dense and unalike, its textures don't diverge in the same methods, but it breathes more, it quivers more, it shakes, it overturns itself, it rusts.
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Feb 14, 2012Deeply felt, gorgeously rendered folk-pop songs.
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Feb 13, 2012The blend of soul and rootsy grit may not be startlingly original, but here, at least, it's Van Etten's and nobody else's that truly shines.
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Feb 9, 2012As a whole, Sharon Van Etten really hits the nail on the head with her third try.
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Feb 7, 2012Van Etten has all the right tools to make a great album.
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Feb 7, 2012Here, she and her double-tracked voice sound bigger, thanks partly to help from dudes in Beirut and the National.
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Feb 6, 2012The producerly hand of the National's Aaron Dessner and cameos by the likes of Beirut's Zach Condon only add to the conclusion that Tramp is one of the must-hears of early 2012.
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UncutFeb 3, 2012A graceful, distinctive album. [Mar 2012, p.101]
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Feb 2, 2012Every track on Tramp provides a singularly rewarding experience in one way or another. Only the album's pacing weakens its impact as a whole.
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Feb 2, 2012Tramp continues the trajectory that got underway with her debut LP Because I Was in Love in 2009, broadening her sound and exhibiting greater confidence while markedly ramping up the volume.
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Feb 1, 2012Matters of mistrust, isolation, and uncomfortable togetherness dominate Tramp, rolling through every track like a sick, creeping fog.
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Mar 15, 2012Van Etten is in control like never before.
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Feb 15, 2012It simply, like her two (arguably better) albums before them, hurts too good to be ignored.
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Feb 6, 2012Much of that quiet sturdiness derives from Van Etten's singing, which anchors the music even as Dessner fills out his gloomy arrangements with dense indie-noir details.
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Under The RadarMar 21, 2012Tramp ups the game on both fronts [as a songwriter and as a musician]- her songs have a newfound bravado, and her crushing heartache has become tempered with acceptance and understanding. [Mar 2012, p.87]
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Feb 14, 2012For a few tracks, like "Magic Chords," her sound starts becoming a trap for a song that never quite coalesces. But the flip side is "All I Can," which reveals a streak of slow-build adult pop craft that's kept under wraps for much of the album.
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Feb 9, 2012Tramp is confirmation that Van Etten is a singular talent in the singer-songwriter world, a voice that commands attention through sheer power and the subtle impact of her words.
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Feb 8, 2012For Van Etten, it's a logical next step in her upward trajectory.
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Feb 7, 2012Tramp offers plenty for listeners to enjoy as she goes.
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Feb 7, 2012Dessner, as studio ringleader, misperceives Van Etten's power as simply a matter of mounting force and so tries to buttress her performance (her personality) with all the layering clichés and atmospheric tricks in his indie rock playbook.
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Feb 10, 2012With the few songs that feature the vocal backing of Condon the fullness that immediately hits the ear makes me realise that introducing another voice or even another medium to the mix would enhance the listening experience of this album by at least 75%.
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Feb 6, 2012Some moments here do veer into the more predictable end of indie-rock territory.
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Feb 2, 2012Sometimes the lack of definition and the deluge of words grow tedious, but in these songs, all lushly arranged, as is the entire album, the effect is nothing short of riveting.
Awards & Rankings
User score distribution:
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Positive: 37 out of 41
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Mixed: 4 out of 41
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Negative: 0 out of 41
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Mar 2, 2012
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May 10, 2022
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Nov 23, 2015