Sharon Van Etten unveils new song on Ellen

Most artists choose to use television performances to publicise a just-released single or, if they’re feeling particularly generous, offer up a run through of a road-tested album track. But not Sharon Van Etten. Appearing on Ellen last night, the sensitive indie rocker flipped a middle finger to convention and premiered an entirely new track entitled ‘I Don’t Want To Let You Down’.

Clearly unfazed at pursuing the mammoth task of following up last year’s sterling ‘Are We There’, it’s rumoured that the new track- imbued with the same stabbing organ, weeping guitar parts and warbling vocals as the aforementioned long-player- will take centre stage on a yet-to-be announced EP, as well as seeing release as a single.

Already available to stream via Spotify, live, ‘I Don’t Want To Let You Down’ is as bludgeoning and downbeat as anything to which Van Etten has previously lent her name. With its wounded singer barely breaking eye contact with the camera as it reaches its typically cathartic peak, the song can be read as a suitably-poignant epilogue to the brutally honest diary-like tracks that made ‘Are We There’ so arresting.

Taking a momentary break from the road, Sharon Van Etten resumes her world tour in February with two nights in New York before heading to Australasia, mainland Europe and back to our shores for a small run of dates. Catch these, and her Ellen slot, below. Hold tight for news on an imminent EP.

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