Sharon Van Etten at SXSW 2011
Sharon Etten’s epic was released back in September of 2010 and while it was her second release, it was my first introduction to the New Jersey singer-songwriter. After seeing Van Etten open for Junip at Lee’s Palace in November of that year, I was immediately hooked and saw her no less than three times during the promo cycle for that album and several more times in the ensuing years, most recently at Roskilde 2019 … you know, back when live music was still a thing.
Sharon Van Etten is easily one of the best songwriters of the past decade or so and while everything she’s released since then has also been great, I must admit that none of it has resonated with me in quite the same way that that epic has, so I was happy to see that Van Etten is celebrating ten years of epic with a deluxe reissue. Sure it’s a little late, but time doesn’t really have much meaning these days anyways and I’ll take any excuse to revisit a favourite album, especially when it’s loaded up with extra goodies.
The “goodies” in question are, of course, covers of each of the album’s tracks by a broad selection of performers including Shamir, IDLES, and Lucinda Williams, which help to make this re-release of epic just a bit more, well, epic than the original release. Of the new versions, the standouts are Shamir’s stunning version of “DsharpG” and Courtney Barnett and Vagabon’s grungy, Neil Young-esque take on “Don’t Do It.” The biggest surprise of the bunch though comes from the previously unknown to me St. Panther, who transforms Van Etten’s “One Day” into a full on pop song.
But what of the original versions of these songs? Do they hold up all these years later. Yes they do. Very much so. From the opening strums of “A Crime” to the meditative beauty of closer “Love More”, I was taken right back to the first time I heard these songs and reminded that as much as Van Etten has progressed and grown as a songwriter, she was already so good back then.
I always look forward to seeing what Sharon Van Etten’s going to do next, but it’s nice to look back every now and then too. And epic is definitely an album worth revisiting.
Sharon Van Etten’s epic Ten is out now on Ba Da Bing Records.