Are We There by Sharon Van Etten

Are We There, Sharon Van Etten's fourth album, came out on Jagjaguwar on May 27, 2014, two years after Tramp, with Stewart Lerman in the producer's chair. Note that the title has no question mark: the New Jersey songwriter meant it as a question she keeps asking herself about work, love and friendship, and as a sly nod to life on the road, always between places.

Her list of touchstones is all over the map, from Lee Hazlewood and Bobby Womack to Suicide, Low, Chromatics and PJ Harvey, and you can hear that range in how the arrangements open up: slow-burning indie rock where her voice aches and swells until the confessions start to feel like weather. Critics went for it in a big way, Metacritic's average landing at 86 across 36 reviews, and AllMusic's Fred Thomas called it a clear step forward. "Taking Chances" is the song that found the countdowns.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.