Sharon Van Etten – “Staring At A Mountain”

Sharon Van Etten is a great songwriter, but that’s not her only job. Lately, Van Etten has also taken up acting. She made her debut on the bugged-out cult-favorite Netflix series The OA, and she’s about to appear in her first feature film. Van Etten acts in Never Rarely Sometimes Always, the new indie drama from writer/director Eliza Hittman. The film, which debuted at Sundance, tells the story two teenage girls who venture from rural Pennsylvania so that one them can get an abortion. Van Etten plays the mother one the girls.

Van Etten’s involvement in the movie isn’t limited to her role. She’s also got a brand-new song on the soundtrack. (Van Etten never really stops dropping music; she just came out with the single “Beaten Down” last month.) “Staring At A Mountain,” Van Etten’s latest, is a st, lovely ballad. It sounds more like the music she was making a few years ago than the stark synth-rock that she’s specialized in lately. Listen to the song below, Brooklyn Vegan.

Van Etten doesn’t appear in the trailer for Never Rarely Sometimes Always, but it is set to her song “Seventeen,” which fits the imagery beautifully. (Also, Sidney Flanigan, the first-time actor who plays Van Etten’s daughter, looks a whole hell a lot like her.) Here’s that trailer:

Never Rarely Sometimes Always is in theaters 3/13. The self-released “Staring At A Mountain” is out now on the streaming services.