Sharon Van Etten & The Attachment Theory＜Colored Vinyl＞

After rising in popularity with an affecting, quietly intense indie folk-rock that she gradually expanded and fortified across the 2010s, Sharon Van Etten made strides into new wave and post-punk textures on albums like Remind Me Tomorrow (2019) and Weve Been Going About This All Wrong (2022). With Sharon Van Etten & the Attachment Theory, the singer/songwriter fully embraces an icy, mechanical post-punk palette, one that still incorporates elements of guitar rock (and is part analog) but is distinguished by drum machines, eerie synths, and prevailing electronics. Its a sound thats well-suited to the albums anxious and alienated songs. Speaking of which, in another first for Van Etten, they were written and recorded collaboratively as a quartet that included Teeny Lieberson (TEEN), who plays multiple instruments including synths here, bassist Devra Hoff, and Jorge Balbi, whos credited with drums and machines. The Sharon Van Etten & the Attachment Theory LP opens with "Live Forever," a track whose gloomy, turn-of-the-1980s sensibility is reinforced with detached vocals, echoing metallic beats, and lyrics that answer the repeated question "Who wants to live forever?" with "It doesnt matter." Later, Van Etten poses questions like "Do you believe in compassion for enemies?" and "Who is to blame when it falls to decay?," this time over a dancing bassline, more urgent drums, and lively guitar and synthesizer accompaniment, but with a similar deadpan -- or perhaps more precisely, numb -- delivery ("Somethin Aint Right"). Arriving in early 2025, the album also seems particularly timely when it struggles with sociopolitical siloing on the stoned-out "Trouble" ("All the bubbles that we live in") and on "I Cant Imagine (Why You Feel This Way)," which fashions an angular lite disco for lyrics that try to tune out violence as well as caring before ending on the couplet "Will the people let us down?/Will the people turn it round?" The ten-song set closes with the dramatic ballad "I Want You Here" ("For whatever its worth," "Even when it gets worse"), on which Van Etten seems to emerge from a medicated stupor to make a plea on behalf of us all. ~ Marcy Donelson

シンガー・ソングライターのシャロン・ヴァン・エッテンが結成したバンドによるデビュー作。素朴でキャッチーなギター・フレーズが耳に残る"Idiot Box"を筆頭に、本作はニュー・オーダーなどのポスト・パンクを想起させる曲が多い。性急なグルーヴが特徴の"Indio"など、過剰なプロダクションを避けた生々しいローファイ・サウンドが目立つのも印象的。
bounce (C)近藤真弥