Chords With Nowhere to Go

Sharon Van Etten writes songs that feel like they’ve been sitting in a dark room for months before she finally let them out. Tramp, her 2012 record produced by Aaron Dessner of The National, is the kind of album where you never quite know if she’s about to crack open or decide not to. The voice lives at the edge of control throughout. That tension is the whole point—not technically unusual, just placed with the instinct of someone who knows exactly where it’s going to hurt.