“Porta” Sharon Van Etten

“Porta,” Sharon Van Etten’s first drip of new solo material in a minute, was written back in 2020 in the wake of a serious bout of depression. The song channels the paranoia and self-doubt of the singer-songwriter feeling “dissociated” and what she described as being “not connected to my body.” But it also serves as a steely exorcism of these feelings. “You want to steal my life,” Van Etten proclaims, turning her anxieties into a punching bag that she can wail on. Musically, it draws from the sky-high synth-pop palette of her triumphant 2019 album, Remind Me Tomorrow, with buzzing basslines, a sneaky little key change, and Van Etten’s voice gracefully flitting in and out of her falsetto. “Think straight. Get by,” she repeats to herself as a closing mantra, before issuing one last K.O. to her melancholy: “Stay out of my life.”