TRACK: I Wish I Knew

WHO: Sharon Van Etten

WHAT: Charming, blue, acoustic folk pop with bags of heart and a little bit of hiss. No boos though.

THE HYPE: "Sharon Van Etten plays bittersweet neofolk so slow, spare and subtle that you might have to crane your neck to hear it...definitely worth the effort." - Time Out New York

WE SAY: Brooklyn-based singer-songwriter Sharon Van Etten describes her own material as "sad prairie folk music". While it's true that I Wish I Knew is tinged with enough melancholy to reduce even Chuck Norris to tears, it also fills the heart with starlight and gives hope to music fans everywhere because it proves that there are still proper musicians and artists out there and that the cynical, overexposed, bland, ostentatious and heinously rubbish reality shows that clog up television schedules haven't quite won the battle yet.

Recorded at home, I Wish I Knew is simply a gently-strummed acoustic guitar and Van Etten's hauntingly beautiful voice, which sounds a little like Beth Orton via Hayley Willis: subtle hushed tones capable of exploding into histrionic soars and sensational swoops at the touch of button. It's these qualities that give her poignant wandering lyrics an extra emotional punch and ensure that a song, which in lesser mouths might have been lost in the swamp of often self-produced (and therefore often rubbish) MySpace music, lingers long in the memory of even the most casual browser.

I Wish I Know is a beguiling listen from start to finish; a heartfelt, romantic, fuzzy, ethereal and beautiful, right down to the most abrupt of endings and the resultant tape hiss fade out. It sends a shiver down the spine every time.

IF YOU ONLY NEED TO KNOW ONE THING: Sharon Van Etten pretty much keeps to herself, but I do know that she is a fan of Fear by John Cale, a great record that features his first UK single - The Man Who Couldn't Afford to Orgy. For some reason it didn't do too well in the charts. Why? I wish I knew...

WHERE CAN I GET MY HANDS ON IT: I Wish I Knew is on Sharon Van Etten's MySpace, available for free download at rcrdlbl.com and is also featured on her self-produced album of home recordings (hurry though; only a few left). A new album (because i was in love) is due next April and there's also the possibility of a UK 7" next year.

FIND MORE: www.myspace.com/sharonvanetten

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