Sharon Van Etten - We've Been Going About This All Wrong

We've Been Going About This All Wrong is the sixth studio album by American singer-songwriter Sharon Van Etten, released in May 2022 via Jagjaguwar Records.

Sharon Van Etten has always been the kind of artist who helps people make sense of the world around them, and her sixth album, ‘We’ve Been Going About This All Wrong’, concerns itself with how we feel, mourn, and reclaim our agency when we think the world - or at least, our world - might be falling apart. How do we protect the things most precious to us from destructive forces beyond our control? How do we salvage something worthwhile when it seems all is lost? Did we try hard enough? In considering these questions and her own vulnerability in the face of them, Van Etten creates a stunning meditation on how life’s changes can be both terrifying and transformative. ‘We’ve Been Going About This All Wrong’ articulates the beauty and power that can be rescued from our wreckages.

‘We’ve Been Going About This All Wrong’ is as much a reflection on how we manage the ending of metaphorical worlds as we do the ending of actual ones: the twin flames of terror and unrelenting love that light up with motherhood; navigating the demands of partnership when your responsibilities have changed; the loss of centre and safety that can come with leaving home; how the ghosts of our past can appear without warning in our present; feeling helpless with the violence and racism in the world; and yes, what it means when a global viral outbreak forces us to relinquish control of the things that have always made us feel so human, and seek new forms of connection to replace them.

Unlike Van Etten’s previous albums, there will be no songs off the album released prior to the record coming out. The ten tracks on ‘We’ve Been Going About This All Wrong’ are designed to be listened to in order, all at once, so that a much larger story of hope, loss, longing and resilience can be told. There is darkness here but there is light too, and all of it is held together by Van Etten’s uncanny ability to both pierce the hearts of her listeners and make them whole again. Things are not dark, she reminds us, only darkish.

This album is an indies record store limited edition on marble smoke coloured vinyl housed in a gatefold sleeve with a printed inner sleeve and download code, pressed in the US via Jagjaguwar.