Remind Me Tomorrow by Sharon Van Etten

It took me a little while to warm up to Sharon Van Etten. Her first two albums came out in 2009 and 2010, and I know I heard a song or two off of them at that time, but her music just wasn’t my bag. In the beginning, the Top 31 was a lot more subconsciously, and therefore outwardly, male-centric. But my listening habits have changed quite a bit over the last 11 years. When Van Etten’s Aaron Dessner-produced third album, Tramp, came out in 2012, things started to snap into place around here. That album was at #13 back in 2012. She followed that up pretty quickly with Are We There, which hit the Top 31 all the way up at #4 in 2014.

And then there was nothing. For five long years, Etten didn’t release another album, concentrating instead on acting (she starred in the Brit Marling and Zal Batmanglij (Rostam’s brother) Netflix series “OA”, which ran from 2016-2019) and starting a family (she had her first child, a son, in 2017). It started to feel as if the singing career was over for her, and who can blame her with a 2-year old and a lucrative acting gig. But turns out it was just a break, because on January 18, 2019 she released the fantastic Remind Me Tomorrow.

According to Wikipedia, Van Etten wrote the album while she “was pregnant with her first child, attending school to obtain a degree in psychology and starring in the Netflix series The OA (2016) and making a cameo in Twin Peaks (2017).” With so much going on, she seems to have done the impossible: start a family, earn a college degree and do series acting all while putting together one hell of a banging record.

Remind Me Tomorrow is not like Van Etten’s other albums. This isn’t a slow dirge (I mean that nicely). These songs are rock n’ roll, pure and simple. This is Van Etten taking the reins from PJ Harvey, and from Patti Smith before her. In addition to the wonderful “Comeback Kid” shown in the totally 80s video above, check out these other videos and you’ll hear what I’m talking about:

Yes, “Jupiter 4” is slow. But “No One” and “Seventeen” are not, and she’s blowing up everything she used to represent. It feels as if she’s not only expanded what she’s capable of (in music and in real life), but she’s also purposefully stepping away from where she was on her earlier albums. These are not songs of sadness and lamenting and longing, which became her calling card on those earlier albums. The songs on Remind Me Tomorrow are about rebirth, reestablishing herself as something to be reckoned with. This is Van Etten’s world, and I’m so glad she’s allowed us to live in it.

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6. I Am Easy to Find by The National
7. 5 + 7 by Sault
8. Giants of All Sizes by Elbow
9. i,i by Bon Iver
10. Kiwanuka by Michael Kiwanuka
11. The Destroyer (Parts 1 + 2) by TR/ST
12. When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go? by Billie Eilish
13. Cheap Queen by King Princess
14. Anima by Thom Yorke
15. Everything Not Saved Will Be Lost Parts 1 + 2 by Foals
16. Gallipoli by Beirut
17. My Finest Work Yet by Andrew Bird
18. Four of Arrows by Great Grandpa
19. Designer by Aldous Harding
20. Norman Fucking Rockwell! by Lana Del Rey
21. Our Pathetic Age by DJ Shadow
22. Juice B Crypts by Battles
23. Pony by Orville Peck
24. Hyperspace by Beck
25. Eraserland by Strand of Oaks
26. Dogrel by Fontaines DC
27. You’re the Man by Marvin Gaye
28. Big Wows by Stealing Sheep
29. 1000 gecs by 100 gecs
30. In the Morse Code of Brake Lights by The New Pornographers
31. Radiant Dawn by Operators

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