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Dec 05, 2024 By Mark Redfern Photography by Susu Laroche

Sharon Van Etten is releasing a new album written and recorded with her backing band, The Attachment Theory, simply titled Sharon Van Etten & The Attachment Theory, on February 7, 2025 via Jagjaguwar. Now they have shared its second single, “Southern Life (What It Must Be Like),” via a music video. They have also announced some new April and May U.S. tour dates. Check out the song below, followed by the tour dates.

In a press release, Van Etten says the song is about “trying to understand people with very different perspectives and backgrounds, while also trying to be compassionate towards our past, present, and future selves.”

It was one of the first songs the band wrote for the album, after a rehearsal for the We’ve Been Going About This All Wrong tour. “After days of rehearsing the songs from the album and how to execute them live, I was getting tired of hearing myself,” says Van Etten. “I didn’t want to over rehearse the songs to death. And so, for the first time ever, I asked if the band just wanted to ‘jam,’ play without it having to be something, to clear our heads.”

Ethan Dawes directed the song’s video, which features 35mm footage from the band’s recent surprise performance at The Viper Room in Los Angeles.

Previously Sharon Van Etten & The Attachment Theory shared the album’s first single, “Afterlife,” via a music video. It was one of our Songs of the Week.

The Attachment Theory is Jorge Balbi (drums, machines), Devra Hoff (bass, vocals), and Teeny Lieberson (synth, piano, guitar, vocals). While they have previously backed Van Etten on some of her solo work, this was the first time that the singer/songwriter/guitarist wrote and recorded an album in full collaboration with the band.

“For the first time in my life I asked the band if we could just jam. Words that have never come out of my mouth—ever! But I loved all the sounds we were getting. I was curious—what would happen?” says Van Etten in a press release. “In an hour we wrote two songs that ended up becoming ‘I Can’t Imagine’ and ‘Southern Life.’”

Sharon Van Etten & The Attachment Theory was recorded at The Church, Eurythmics’ former studio in London, and was produced by Marta Salogni (Björk, Bon Iver, Animal Collective, Mica Levi).

“Sometimes it’s exciting, sometimes it’s scary, sometimes you feel stuck,” Van Etten says of fully collaborating with her band on the album. “It’s like every day feels a little different—just being at peace with whatever you’re feeling and whoever you are and how you relate to people in that moment. If I can just keep a sense of openness while knowing that my feelings change every day, that is all I can do right now. That and try to be the best person I can be while letting other people be who they are and not taking it personally and just being. I’m not there, but I’m trying to be there every day.”

Van Etten was on the cover of our My Favorite Movie issue.

Van Etten’s most recent album was We’ve Been Going About This All Wrong, which was released in May 2022 and landed on our Top 100 Albums of 2022 list. A deluxe edition of the album was released in November 2022.

Read our review of We’ve Been Going About This All Wrong here.

Read our in-depth interview with Sharon Van Etten on 2019’s Remind Me Tomorrow and check out our exclusive photo shoot with her.

Sharon Van Etten & The Attachment Theory Tour Dates:

Sat. Feb. 1 - Westerly, RI @ The United #
Mon. Feb. 3 - Woodstock, NY @ Bearsville Theater #
Tue. Feb. 4 - Asbury Park, NJ @ The Stone Pony – First Home State Headline Show #
Fri. Feb. 28 - Oslo, NO @ Rockefeller *
Sat. Mar. 1 - Stockholm, SE @ Fållan *
Sun. Mar. 2 - Copenhagen, DK @ Vega *
Tue. Mar. 4 - Berlin, DE @ Astra Kulturhaus *
Thu. Mar. 6 - Paris, FR @ Le Trianon *
Fri. Mar. 7 - Antwerp, BE @ De Roma *
Sat. Mar. 8 - Amsterdam, NL @ Paradiso *
Mon. Mar. 10 - London, UK @ Royal Albert Hall *
Tue. Mar. 11 - Manchester, UK @ Albert Hall *‘Wed. Mar. 12 - Glasgow, UK @ Barrowland Ballroom *
Thu. Apr. 24 - Atlanta, GA @ The Eastern ^
Fri. Apr. 25 - Nashville, TN @ Brooklyn Bowl ^
Sat. Apr. 26 - Asheville, NC @ The Orange Peel ^
Mon. Apr. 28 - Washington, DC @ 9:30 Club ^
Wed. Apr. 30 - Philadelphia, PA @ Union Transfer ^
Thu. May 1 - Boston, MA @ Roadrunner ^
Fri. May 2 - Brooklyn, NY @ Brooklyn Steel ^
Mon. May 5 - Detroit, MI @ Saint Andrew’s Hall ^
Tue. May 6 - Toronto, ON @ History ^
Thu. May 8 - Madison, WI @ The Sylvee ^
Fri. May 9 - Chicago, IL @ The Salt Shed ^
Sat. May 10 - St. Paul, MN @ Palace Theatre ^
Mon. May 12 - Denver, CO @ Ogden Theatre ^
Tue. May 13 - Salt Lake City, UT @ Metro Music Hall ^
Thu. May 15 - Seattle, WA @ The Crocodile ^
Fri. May 16 - Seattle, WA @ The Crocodile ^
Sat. May 17 - Vancouver, BC @ Vogue Theatre ^
Sun. May 18 - Portland, OR @ Revolution Hall ^
Wed. May 21 - Los Angeles, CA @ The Wiltern ^

# with She Keeps Bees
* with special guest Nabihah Iqbal
^ with Love Spells

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