The 10th-anniversary version of the album arrives on May 31
In anticipation of the 10th-anniversary edition of Are We There, Sharon Van Etten is reflecting on how the music from her seminal fourth studio album has evolved over the past decade. The retrospective record will arrive on May 31, featuring the newly-released alternate version of “Every Time the Sun Comes Up.”
“This version of ‘Every Time the Sun Comes Up’ developed as the band and I were really honing our sound,” the singer-songwriter shared in a statement. “We were rehearsing for the We’ve Been Going About This All Wrong Tour, leaning into some of our influences to give the song a more current feel to where we were all creatively at the time. We performed it live and the audience really responded to our new Joy Division-like spin on it. We had the idea to release it to celebrate the Are We There 10-year anniversary and breathe new life into it, which feels like the perfect time.”
Monday, May 27, marked 10 years since the release of Are We There. In a four-star review of the album, Rolling Stone noted that the record “grows her trademark examinations of romantic decay to cathedral-like scale,” and singled out “Every Time the Sun Comes Up” as a highlight, writing: “The closer, ‘Every Time the Sun Comes Up,’ pulls back the curtain a bit: ‘People say I’m a one-hit wonder, but what happens when I have two?’ she asks cheekily. Define ‘hit’ as you like; that she’s a wonder, there’s no doubt.”
Following Are We There, Van Etten waited nearly five years before releasing another album. Remind Me Tomorrow arrived in January 2019, but the space between that record and its follow-up, 2022’s We’ve Been Going About This All Wrong, wasn’t nearly as long.
Later this year, Van Etten will perform at the Hollywood Bowl as support for Mitski.