Sharon Van Etten hasn’t released a new album since 2019's Remind Me Tomorrow, but that’s about to change. Her sixth album, We’ve Been Going About This All Wrong, arrives on May 6 via Jagjaguwar.
That’s one hell of a title. But as it’s explained in the digital press kit, “We’ve Been Going About This All Wrong concerns itself with the questions we ask ourselves when we think the world—or at least, our world—might be ending. Have we loved as well as we could? Did we try hard enough? How do we protect the things most precious to us from destructive forces beyond our control? And how do we salvage something worthwhile when it seems all is lost?”
During the Remind Me Tomorrow days, Van Etten ushered in a new era with the fantastic lead single “Seventeen,” that drummed up excitement for what was to come. This time, though, Van Etten is keeping fans in the dark. There will be no singles leading up to the LP—and recent songs “Porta” and “Used To It” aren’t on it, either.
As Van Etten says in a statement, “I wanted to approach this release differently, to engage my fans in an intentional way, in an effort to present the album as a whole body of work. These ten songs are designed to be listened to in order, at once, so that a much larger story of hope, loss, longing and resilience can be told.”
What we do get is a 44-second trailer, featuring behind-the-scenes footage and pictures of the musician and her family from the past couple of years.
The news of Van Etten’s album comes months after the musician announced a joint tour with labelmate and “Like I Used To” collaborator Angel Olsen (who also has a new album on the way) and Julien Baker. The trio hits the road in July.
