Sharon Van Etten Teases New Album, But Won’t Be Dropping Any Singles
Sharon Van Etten is set to release her sixth studio album, We’ve Been Going About This All Wrong, May 6 via Jagjaguwar.
The album announcement was accompanied by a short trailer, which pairs what’s ostensibly a snippet of some soaring, thundering piece of new music, with a collage-style montage of photos, videos, and more from Van Etten’s personal life and musical career.
What’s not accompanying the We’ve Been Going About This All Wrong announcement is a new single. And, as it turns out, Van Etten won’t be sharing any music from the LP before it’s released. (Earlier this year, she dropped two tracks, “Porta” and “Used to It,” but neither will appear on We’ve Been Going About This All Wrong.)
“I wanted to approach this release differently, to engage my fans in an intentional way, in an effort to present the album as a whole body of work,” Van Etten said of the no singles decisions in a statement. “These ten songs are designed to be listened to in order, at once, so that a much larger story of hope, loss, longing and resilience can be told.”
Van Etten recorded and engineered We’ve Been Going About This All Wrong at her new home studio in Los Angeles, working with co-producer Daniel Knowles. She also enlisted the help of her regular touring band, Jorge Balbi on drums, Devon Hoff on bass, and live musical director Charley Damski on guitar and synths.
We’ve Been Going About This All Wrong follows Van Etten’s 2019 album, Remind Me Tomorrow. She released a handful of singles in the intervening years, including “Beaten Down,” “Let Go,” and her collaboration with Angel Olsen, “Like I Used To.” Last year, Van Etten celebrated the 10th anniversary of her album, Epic, by enlisting artists like Fiona Apple, Lucinda Williams, Courtney Barnett, and Vagabon to cover every song on the LP.
Van Etten has a handful of live shows scheduled for this spring, but she’ll embark on a full-fledged North American run this summer. The Wild Hearts Tour will feature Van Etten, Olsen, and Julien Baker, and it kicks off July 21 in Vienna, Virginia and wraps in New York City Aug. 21.
We’ve Been Going About This All Wrong Track List
1. Darkness Fades
2. Home to Me
3. I’ll Try
4. Anything
5. Born
6. Headspace
7. Come Back
8. Darkish
9. Mistakes
10. Far Away
