Consumer Guide Album

Sharon Van Etten: Remind Me Tomorrow [Jagjaguwar, 2019]
Van Etten's big voice, controlled tempos, and dramatic aura have never tempted me to enter her world. But from the attention-getting opener--delivered with a modicum of emotion and forethought, "Sitting at the bar, I told you everything/You said, 'Holy shit, you almost died'" should get any listener with a heart to the end of the quatrain--I found myself hooked on her first album since 2014, which fans agree is her best without coming together on why. I chalk up my own interest to its diminished drama. If the tales here still tend toward screwed-up relationships and past misadventures rather than expanding on the cover photo of her two-year-old perched on a hilariously messy living room rug, so be it. She'll get there eventually. A-