We’re only in February and I already know this new album by Sharon Van Etten & the Attachment Theory will be high on my 2025 year-end list. The album, the first of Van Etten’s to be credited as a full band effort, is bookended by two five minute-plus songs (“Live Forever” and “I Want You Here”) that build slow and finish big. In between are a set songs that draw influences as wide as the post punk of early New Order/Joy Division (“Somethin’ Ain’t Right), to the pulsing neo-rock-disco of Masseduction era St. Vincent (“I Can’t Imagine”). And they pull these influences together in a way that makes it their own. Even with 10.5 months to go this year, this will no doubt be a top album on my 2025 Spotify Wrapped!