Speaking to Hot Press in 2012, Sharon Van Etten confessed domestic bliss had plunged her into a creative crisis. Through her twenties she had channelled her romantic angst into torturous dirges. Now here she was, 31 and in a happy relationship and at a loss for things to sing about.
Two years later, it is fair to state that a lack of inner turmoil is no longer an issue for the Brooklyn-based artist. A searing break-up LP, Are We There chronicles the painful dissolution of the very same relationship we spoke about on that sunny afternoon in Dublin.
There is a convention for these sort of records to conceal their angst beneath a bushel ? in the usual course, the first thing an artist does after writing a break-up album is deny they've written a break-up album. However, Van Etten isn't one for waxing coy and here she lays her metaphorical heart ? the shattered fragments at any rate ?on a plinth and invites us to take a gawp.
It's bruising stuff. Against a backdrop of stately Americana-esque guitars, her voice rising from a mutter to a shriek, she deploys lines like you love me as you torture me?(on the Cure-tinged?Your Love Is Killing Me) making no attempt to downplay the agony.
There are moments of subtlety amid the tumult:'I Love You But Im Lost' is stately and gothic, a showcase for Van Etten's muscular guitar; 'You Know Me Well'sounds like something a young PJ Harvey might have come up with after a weekend weeping in her bedroom. Are We There is not an easy listen ? but it is a mesmerising one, casting a spell that lingers long after Van Etten's howl has faded into silence.