Today, singer-songwriter Sharon Van Etten announced the forthcoming release of a 10-year anniversary edition of her seismic fourth album, Are We There. The record will come out this Friday, May 31, and a 7″ of “Every Time the Sun Comes Up” will come out on August 23 via Jagjaguwar. In 2014, Are We There placed 8th on our year-end best albums list, and critic Eric R. Danton wrote that Van Etten’s opus was “a masterpiece, an album of extraordinary depth and sophistication that finds the New York singer/songwriter in full command of her considerable talent.”
The Are We There (Anniversary Edition) will be available in standard black, gray and silver tri-color vinyl variants, and the “Every Time the Sun Comes Up” 7″ will come backed with a live version recorded at the Sydney Opera House.
“The whole time I was making Are We There, I was commuting to Hobo Sound from an apartment in the city, and I took a train to the bus station and walked from the Lincoln tunnel to the studio in Weehawken, NJ,” Van Etten says. “Making this record, my bandmates (Doug Keith, Heather Woods Broderick, and Zeke Hutchins) quickly became my family, and I realized I sought refuge in the studio. It was where I felt nurtured. It felt like home. I was able to find myself and I feel like that vulnerability and strength was captured through the collaborations on this album. The name of this album represents, for me, a place I departed from but with an acknowledgment that I haven’t yet arrived.”
Pre-order the Are We There (Anniversary Edition) here and listen to an alternate version of “Every Time the Sun Comes Up” below.