Click, click, click, click. Hi, everyone. Clickthony Clicktano here, the internet's busiest music nerd. It's time for this new Sharon Van Etten album, Sharon Van Etten & The Attachment Theory.

Singer-songwriter Sharon Van Etten. Truly a veteran of the indie circuit, she is now on her seventh full-length official studio album, and well over a decade into her career. And while she is not new to this, this new record over here signifies a first in her catalog, as this album is not simply a solo effort for Sharon. It is fully billed along with her band, The Attachment Theory, which is a change.

The last 5-6 years, Sharon's life and musical career have undergone a lot of radical changes. She has been dipping her toes more into acting. She has dove head first into motherhood and really tried to reach for the stars, sonically speaking, on her last full-length LP, We've been Going About This All Wrong. A record that had its shortcomings for sure, but still saw Sharon trying to rise above the general indie folk categorization with a fuller, louder, heavier sound that definitely was big, but occasionally too overpowering for the songs attached to it.

But I guess a bigger sound meant bigger shows and performances with the band that helped her record it. Now with this album, she has formally made them a part of the creative process here with songs, hence Sharon Van Etten & the Attachment Theory.

Now, I will say in comparison with her last record, I think a lot of the sonic kinks have been worked out. Sharon's powerful, mature, far-reaching vibrato really sounds bold and dominant on top of these instrumentals, even on the cuts that really lean heavily into hazier mixes and a lot of reverb. And while there isn't one singular musical thread guiding the sound and aesthetics of all the tracks on this record, I guess you could argue a selling point of this album is just how versatile it is and how great it is as showcasing Sharon's voice working in a variety of different contexts outside of the usual singer-songwriter scope, her music has been boxed in.

Take the very cinematic opening track, for example, which features a lot of slow burning hypnotic synth sequences, some chorused bass as well. While it's not the snappiest track I think Sharon and the band have come together with here, the whole point of the performance and recording mostly seems to be to see just how large and layered and intense of a sound Sharon and the band can conjure by the end of the track. Frankly, Sharon's voice sounds amazing against all of these wailing synthesizers, dramatic drum fills and growling bass. It feels like she's singing on top of an old Mogwai song or something like that. Maybe there is a bit of an intentional post-rock influence going on here.

Following this, though, we have a switch up on the song "Afterlife", which is more meat and potatoes, 2000s-era indie rock, think Cold War Kids. But if you made it more spaced out and psychedelic, and I don't know... Overall, it's okay.

"Idiot Box", though, I think is more complementary to Sharon's vocal style. In a way, it's like some earlier mid '80s new wave, but most specifically, something out of Bruce Springsteen's Born in the USA era, maybe a little John Mellencamp. I'm thinking Americana singer-songwriters who had to essentially adhere to the popular music aesthetics of the 1980s. But rather than having to stick to a script, Sharon and her band, I feel like, are generating this sound out of sheer reverence for this era, with a great tune attached to it, too.

"Trouble" is another chill laidback track as Sharon and her band just can't seem to stop wanting to get lost in the jams that they journey on. And even if I'm not blown away by the song itself, I will say sonically there is something to it between the repetitive hypnotic guitars and warm bass as well as icy synthesizers. This is also one of a few tracks on the record that creeps in real quiet and evaporates just as subtly toward the very end.

Around the midpoint of the album, we have a handful of cuts where the tempo picks up pretty nicely, and I think the record really needed it, like the song "Indio", which features not only some straightforward post-punky rock groups, but really breathy hard lead vocals that are surprisingly light for Sharon's usual delivery. It feels like a bit of a twee-pop thing, like a track that could come off of a Slumberland Records release. Maybe it's something fans of Wet Leg could get down with if they're looking for something a bit more reverb-heavy and dramatic.

Meanwhile, "I Can't Imagine Why You Feel this Way" brings more new wave grooves, but with almost a goth club twist between the grimy bass and Sharon's vocals sounding ghoulish in some pockets. I would even say there's some slight Blondie influence going on on this track, too. But it's the sharp and direct songwriting to me that really sells it.

Now, with the final moments of the LP, this thing finishes much in the same way it starts with these panoramic art rock abstract meditations that are immersive and just have a very big presentation. You could really swim in the sound that Sharon and her band are generating here. However, with these final two tracks, the writing isn't nearly as gripping as, I guess, the sensations that the performances bring up. And while I can acknowledge that Sharon and her band play very well together, I just wish these jams and these crescendos and these emotional highs and lows were attached to songs that had a bit more direction.

But for sure with this record, the dynamics and the band chemistry are there. It's really night and day with Sharon's last record where, yeah, that aspect of the whole thing was not quite as nailed down. And yeah, as a result, Sharon, I think, is getting a lot better at just wielding a much bigger, heavier sound and making it really benefit her voice, too. But if this record does have any shortcomings, it's that on too many tunes, too many tracks, Sharon and the band are getting lost in the sauce a bit, and it's like a middle ground. I wish they would break in one direction or the other. Either take these jams and attach them to a direct and hard-hitting and memorable song, or just go full experimental rock mode and just go absolutely wild. I don't know.

But yeah, for what it is, I feel like this album has a lot going for it, though, and it's definitely an improvement on the last Sharon LP. I'm feeling a strong 7 on this one.

Anthony Fantano, Sharon Van Etten, Forever.