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Nov 27, 2018 By Christopher Roberts Sharon Van Etten

Sharon Van Etten is releasing a new album, Remind Me Tomorrow, on January 18, 2019 via Jagjaguwar. Previously she shared its first single, “Comeback Kid” (which was one of our Songs of the Week), as well as a video for the song. Now she has shared another song from the album, “Jupiter 4,” via a video for the song. The compelling tension filled track is all build-up with no release and the dark and mysterious black & white video matches the song’s vibe well. Katherine Dieckmann directed the video and Van Etten previously scored her film Strange Weather. Watch the video below, followed by Van Etten’s upcoming tour dates.

Van Etten had this to say about the video in a press release: “I had been looking forward to collaborating with Katherine again since finishing our work together on her film in 2016. Since wrapping the film, she has not only been a guiding force in my work, but a light and guiding force in my life as well, sharing with me stories of how she and her husband made it work with two kids as artists living in New York and encouraging me to return to my music after my son was born. I asked if she would ever want to make a music video for me. She asked what the mood would feel like and I simply said ‘apocalyptic mom.’ And with that - she said ‘Absolutely.’ That’s why I love her so much.”

Dieckmann had this to say: “Getting to make a video for ‘Jupiter 4’ was such a gift that Sharon gave to me. The song is a fever dream, a spell cast in the name of obsession. I was hypnotized by it when I first heard it, and have never stopped being hypnotized by it - and by now I have probably heard it over a hundred times, maybe more. The trick was to figure out how to match the power of the song with visuals that could serve its ideas without spelling any of them out. I decided right away to work in an inky black-and-white palette and use raw elements (water, fire, earth, mist, dirt, summertime’s lush meadows and blooms) as a natural support for Sharon, and shoot her as a strong sculptural presence in space, to accompany the deeply immersive quality of the track. Sharon melded herself effortlessly to every natural location, and delivered a sync performance that was so passionate and vulnerable that it struck silent everyone who was lucky enough to see it happen…. It was a magical shoot, one meant to honor ‘Jupiter 4’‘s combination of brooding ambience with searing declarations of passion. I still have to ask myself, is the love ‘so real,’ or is it actually unreal? The beauty of the song, and hopefully of the video too, is that it lets that mystery be.”

Remind Me Tomorrow is the follow-up to 2014’s Are We There, but she’s kept busy in the intervening years, having a kid, going back to school, writing a film score, and embarking on an acting career. The album was written while Van Etten was pregnant and going to school to study psychology. Around that time she also guest starred on the Netflix show The OA and was one of the musical performers on the revival of David Lynch’s Twin Peaks. Plus she wrote the score for Strange Weather, a 2017 drama directed by Katherine Dieckmann and starring Holly Hunter and Carrie Coon, as well as contributing the closing title song for Tig, a 2015 documentary on comedian Tig Notaro. As a previous press release described it, “Remind Me Tomorrow was written in stolen time: in scraps of hours wedged between myriad endeavors.”

John Congleton produced Remind Me Tomorrow, taking Van Etten’s original demos and helping to transform them into a new sound for the singer/songwriter. “He helped flip the signature Van Etten ratio, making the album more energetic-upbeat than minimal-meditative,” the previous press release explained. “The songs are as resonating as ever, the themes are still an honest and subtle approach to love and longing, but Congleton has plucked out new idiosyncrasies from Van Etten’s sound.”

The album finds Van Etten stepping away from the guitar, writing on piano. “Comeback Kid” was initially a piano ballad, but Van Etten “didn’t want it to be pretty,” so it evolved. The previous press release further described the album’s sound as such: “Remind Me Tomorrow as a whole shows this magnetism towards new instruments: piano keys that churn, deep drones, distinctive sharp drums. There are dark intense synths, a propulsive organ, a distorted harmonium.”

The album features Van Etten’s longtime collaborator and bandmate Heather Woods Broderick, as well as various guests, including: Jamie Stewart of Xiu Xiu, Zachary Dawes, Brian Reitzell, Lars Horntveth, McKenzie Smith, Joey Waronker, Luke Reynolds, and Stella Mozgawa of Warpaint.

Van Etten had this to say about the album in the previous press release: “I want to be a mom, a singer, an actress, go to school, but yeah, I have a stain on my shirt, oatmeal in my hair and I feel like a mess, but I’m here. Doing it. This record is about pursuing your passions.”

Sharon Van Etten Tour Dates:

Wed. Feb. 6 - Washington, DC @ 9:30 Club #
Thu. Feb. 7 - Philadelphia, PA @ Union Transfer #
Fri. Feb. 8 - Boston, MA @ Royale #
Sat. Feb. 9 - New York, NY @ Beacon Theatre $ #
Mon. Feb. 11 - Toronto, ON @ Danforth Music Hall #
Wed. Feb. 13 - Detroit, MI @ Majestic Theatre #
Thu. Feb. 14 - Chicago, IL @ Thalia Hall #— SOLD OUT
Fri. Feb. 15 - Chicago, IL @ Thalia Hall #
Sat. Feb. 16 - Minneapolis, MN @ First Avenue #
Mon. Feb. 18 - Englewood, CO @ Gothic Theatre #
Tue. Feb 19 - Salt Lake City, UT - Metro Music Hall #
Thu. Feb 21 - Portland, OR - Crystal Ballroom #
Fri. Feb 22 - Vancouver, BC - Imperial #
Sat. Feb 23 - Seattle, WA - Neptune Theatre #
Tue. Feb. 26 - San Francisco, CA @ The Fillmore #
Thu. Feb 28 - San Diego, CA - The Observatory North Park #
Fri. March 1 - Los Angeles, CA - The Theatre at Ace Hotel #
Thu. March 21 - Birmingham, UK @ The Mill
Fri. March 22 - Manchester, UK @ Albert Hall
Sat. March 23 - Dublin, IE @ Vicar Street
Sun. March 24 - Glasgow, UK @ St. Luke’s
Tue. March 26 - London, UK @ Roundhouse
Wed. March 27 - Bristol, UK @ SWX
Fri. March 29 - Amsterdam, NL @ Paradiso
Sat. March 30 - Brussels, BE @ Orangerie (at Botanique)
Mon. April 1 - Paris, FR @ La Maroquinerie
Tue. April 2 - Koln, DE @ Luxor
Wed. April 3 - Munich, DE @ Strom
Fri. April 5 - Berlin, DE @ Lido
Sat. April 6 - Hamburg, DE @ Grünspan
Sun. April 7 - Copenhagen, DK @ Studio 2 (DR Concert House)
Tue. April 9 - Gothenburg, SE @ Pustervik
Wed. April 10 - Oslo, NO @ Parkteatret
Thu. April 11 - Stockholm, SE @ Kagelbanen

# = with Nilüfer Yanya
$ = with Fred Armisen

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