![]() Closers Stay and Hands don’t offend but they make no impression. This is a song so basic and one-note that anyone could have written it. And then Van Etten manages to one-up herself with Malibu – take all the above descriptors and multiply two-fold. No One’s Easy to Love is a song so lurching and detached that it has the same effect on the listener. Memorial Day is identical – a slow build on the back of generic electronic noises, a barely-there vocal melody, and lots of pretty but inconsequential ‘oohs’ and ‘aahs’ (this jumble of vocals is apparently the chorus). The instrumental – spare keys and programmed drums – is boring, and the melody barely there. It builds towards a climax that never comes, and the journey there isn’t particularly interesting either. Opener I Told You Everything is indicative of the whole album. The only other track with a memorable hook is Jupiter 4, but this overwrought ballad had me rolling my eyes instead of nodding my head. The remaining songs feel glacially slow and meandering, with no engaging melodies in sight. And maybe this is a formula Van Etten should stick to in the future, because the rest of this album cures insomnia. Maybe it’s a coincidence that the only good tracks are the (relatively) uptempo and bouncy ones. The lyrics – apparently aimed directly at a tryhard hipster doofus copycat – are firey, and the melody is both catchy and unique. Seventeen is a bombastic piece of throwback piano rock, Van Etten channelling Springsteen and coming off sounding like Stevie Nicks. Comeback Kid is powerful and its refrain a real hookworm. And the singles from this album are quite rocking too. Her register is lower – it was affected after she had her first child last year by C-section – but despite this her vocals retains their power, and her double-tracked harmonies are still beautiful. Van Etten’s voice is still as smokey and beautiful as ever. Unfortunately, she’s come back with a few good singles and little else. Sharon Van Etten returns after a four-year hiatus from the long-player.
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