Sharon Van Etten, “We’ve Been Going About This All Wrong.”

The last couple of years must have been dark for Sharon Van Etten if her new album, We’ve Been Going About This All Wrong, is any indication. Pre-pandemic, it seemed like everything was coming up Sharon. In 2016, she acted in “The OA” and appeared in “Twin Peaks: The Return” in 2017. Remind Me Tomorrow in 2019 found Van Etten with a stronger voice than ever before, with songs like “Seventeen.”

She went back to college to study psychology and also had a baby. She took a victory lap of sorts in 2021 with the release of Epic Ten, a collection of other artists’ covers of the songs on her 2010 album, Epic. The pandemic threw her for a loop, however, as it did with most of the world. Now the mother of a young child, she and her partner (formerly her drummer) were stuck in their still-unpacked new home in L.A., their wedding canceled and the world mostly brought to a standstill.

Van Etten worked on songs in her new home studio and tried to use songwriting as a means of coping. We’ve Been Going About This All Wrong is mysterious and subdued, but occasionally peppered with some of the synth sounds that were new for her on Remind Me Tomorrow. Her lyrics have always been cryptic, and while they still are here, themes do emerge: domesticity snuffing out the flame of romance, worry about being a good mother, drinking and smoking too much and losing one’s sense of self.

Starting the album with “Darkness Fades” is almost a trigger warning to listeners that this is a dark album, but, in the end, darkness fades. The sound is reminiscent of Van Etten’s earlier work with its dreamy vocals, slow pace and acoustic guitar.

Opening for Nick Cave a few years ago may have rubbed off a bit, judging from second track “Home to Me.” The steady but dramatic piano chords recall Cave’s The Boatman’s Call era as Van Etten sings lyrics to which any working mother can relate: “You’re on my mind/ Do you not see?/ I need my job/ Please don’t hold that against me/ You are my life.”

She almost goes full New Order on “I’ll Try,” with electronic percussion and high-key synths plinking away as her voice soars over them in the chorus: “It’s too much/ But I’ll try/ I’ll try.”

One day often melted into the next during the pandemic; sometimes all the bad news in the world could make a person feel numb. “Anything” sounds like one of many such times during the pandemic, featuring Elliott-Smith-esque guitars and harmonies. Van Etten sings that she was “up the whole night” because she couldn’t “stop thinking ‘bout peace and war.” Then the next day, she chain-smokes and has an “afternoon beer,” lamenting over and over that she “couldn’t feel anything.”

Starting out in a very low register, then traveling up to angelic high notes, she sounds somber on “Born.” The song lacks a traditional verse-chorus structure; the lyrics read like a poem: “I wanted to break/ Something like an innocent child/ Walking by fire/ Not another bullet in vain.” Musically, the song goes to an achingly beautiful place about two-thirds of the way through, with mournful strings and Van Etten’s voice wailing distantly like a banshee; it’s a transcendent moment that pulls listeners out of the emotional mire of the rest of the album.

“Headspace” comes snarling in with an industrial beat and distorted guitars as Sharon Van Etten tries to distract her partner from their phone. “Hardly see what’s next to you/ Can’t you see I’m trying to get through?” She longs for intimacy but is refused in this moment. “Baby don’t turn your back to me,” she begs repeatedly, as the bass booms ominously.

Possibly about missing the younger version of oneself, “Come Back” begins as a quiet song but gets loud during the chorus: “Come back/ Was wild and unsure/ And naked and pure/ Come back.” “Darkish” is the only song on the album that is just Van Etten’s vocals and an acoustic guitar. Reflecting on the mysteries of life, she notes that “All is harmony/ Just once. It’s all. It’s done/ And crazy as can be/ It’s not dark/ It’s only darkish.” This is what passes for optimism on this album—because “darkish” is surely better than dark.

“Mistakes” has a great beat with a synth bass as she revels in how seeming missteps have worked out for her anyway: “Even when I make a mistake, mistake/ Turns out it’s great.” Humorously, she also sings, “I dance like Elaine/ But my baby takes me to the floor/ Says ‘more, more’…”

“Far Away” is the emphatic end to an album that started with “Darkness Fades.” The album seems to say through its order that darkness will fade, and Van Etten will be far away from where she was emotionally. “Been down on myself/ Said won’t go back,” she begins, drawing a line and holding fast. “Long gone I’ll see you far away,” she sings dreamily as the record comes to a close.

Sharon Van Etten didn’t release any singles ahead of We’ve Been Going About This All Wrong. She said she wanted to present it as a body of work. The result is a deep, powerful album that arrives fully formed.

Follow Rachel Alm at Twitter.com/thouzenfold and Instagram.com/thousandfold.