It starts with the voice - as with Epic, initially a bit of a barrier, mixed high and raspy in a way that seems to push out everything else, but on repeat listens revealing itself as an instrument of considerable power and expressiveness and, on Tramp, subtlety. Tramp is a really good album, interesting to listen to throughout, Van Etten's haunted vocals riding on an shimmeringly atmospheric indie-singer-songwriter-country-rock-ish sound a bit reminiscent of Neko Case, the songs being of the kind that don't obviously conform to conventional structures but instead seem to have distinctive shapes of their own. Tracks 2 and 3, "Give Out" and "Serpents" stand out, but the real show-stopper's "All I Can", unabashedly shooting for grandness and nailing it, cresting on its climactic cry "we all make mistakes".
