Sharon Van Etten has released a pair of Paste’s favorite songs of the year so far in February’s “Porta” and March’s “Used to It,” but neither of those tracks appear on her sixth studio album, We’ve Been Going About This All Wrong. In fact, Van Etten won’t share any singles ahead of her Remind Me Tomorrow follow-up’s May 6 release on Jagjaguwar, opting instead to release the LP in one fell swoop. “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,” she explains in a statement. “These 10 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.”
So what else do we know about those songs? According to a press release, 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?”
In exploring these questions, Van Etten returned to the hands-on approach of her 2010 album epic and 2014’s Are We There, co-producing alongside Daniel Knowles, and recording and engineering much of the record herself in a custom-built studio in her family’s Los Angeles home. Van Etten sings and plays guitar, synthesizers, piano, drum machine, wurlitzer, keys and more on We’ve Been Going About This All Wrong, with support from her regular touring band: Jorge Balbi on drums, Devon Hoff on bass, and live musical director Charley Damski on synths and guitars.
Van Etten will play a handful of late-April dates in the Southern U.S. with support from Mia Joy before spending June on her European Darkness Fades Tour, then returning to North America for her Wild Hearts Tour alongside Angel Olsen, Julien Baker and Spencer. in July and August. You can get tickets right here.
Watch the We’ve Been Going About This All Wrong trailer below, and see the details of the album and Van Etten’s tour dates further down.
We’ve Been Going About This All Wrong Tracklist:
01. Darkness Fades
02. Home to Me
03. I’ll Try
04. Anything
05. Born
06. Headspace
07. Come Back
08. Darkish
09. Mistakes
10. Far Away
We’ve Been Going About This All Wrong Art:
Sharon Van Etten Tour Dates:
April
21 – Charlottesville, VA @ The Jefferson Theatre ~
22 – Saxapahaw, NC @ Haw River Ballroom ~
23 – Atlanta, GA @ Variety Playhouse ~
24 – Charleston, SC @ High Water Music Festival
May
31 – Lisbon, PT @ Aula Magna ^ #
June
02 – Barcelona, ES @ Primavera Sound
05 – München, DE @ Muffathalle ^ %
06 – Antwerp, BE @ Openluchttheater Rivierenhof ^ %
07 – Hamburg, DE @ Markthalle ^ %
09 – Oslo, NE @ Loaded &
10 – Stockholm, SE @ Rosendal, Djurgarden &
11 – Copenhagen, DK @ Syd For Solen &
13 – Berlin, DE @ Metropol ^ %
14 – Utrecht, NE @ TivoliVredenberg Grote Zaal ^ %
15 – Paris, FR @ La Cigale ^ %
17 – London, UK @ O2 Brixton Academy ^ %
18 – Birmingham, UK @ O2 Institute ^ %
19 – Leeds, UK @ 02 Academy Leeds ^ %
21 – Glasgow, UK @ Barrowland ^ % !
22 – Dublin, IE @ Vicar Street ^ %
July
21 – Vienna, VA @ Wolf Trap Center For the Performing Arts *
22 – Asheville, NC @ Rabbit Rabbit *
23 – Nashville, TN @ Ryman Auditorium * !
25 – Austin, TX @ Moody Amphitheater *
28 – Los Angeles, CA @ Greek Theatre *
29 – Los Angeles, CA @ Greek Theatre *
30 – Berkeley, CA @ Greek Theatre *
August
02 – Troutdale, OR @ McMenamins Edgefield Amphitheater *
03 – Redmond, WA @ Marymoor Amphitheater *
05 – Boise, ID @ Idaho Botanical Garden *
06 – Salt Lake City, UT @ Twilight Concert Series *
07 – Denver, CO @ Sculpture Park *
09 – Minneapolis, MN @ Surly Brewing Festival Field *
10 – Chicago, IL @ The Salt Shed *
11 – Kalamazoo, MI @ Bell’s Eccentric Cafe *
12 – Toronto, ON @ Massey Hall * !
13 – Toronto, ON @ Massey Hall * !
15 – Shelburne, VT @ The Green at Shelburne Museum *
16 – LaFayette, NY @ Beak & Skiff Apple Orchards *
18 – Boston, MA @ Leader Bank Pavilion *
19 – Philadelphia, PA @ Skyline Stage at The Mann *
20 – New York, NY @ Central Park Summerstage *
21 – New York, NY @ Central Park Summerstage *
(~ = with Mia Joy)
(& = with The National)
(^ = Darkness Fades Tour)
(# = with The Weather Station)
(% = with L’Rain)
(* = The Wild Hearts Tour with Angel Olsen, Julien Baker, & Spencer.)
(! = no Spencer.)
