Unlike many releases of this kind and previous releases of her own, Van Ettan’s recent singles “Porta” and “Used To It” will not appear on the album. “I wanted to approach this release differently, to engage my fans in an intentional way, in an effort to present the album as a whole body of work,” said Van Etten in a press release. “These ten songs are designed to be listened to in order, at once, so that a much larger story of hope, loss, longing and resilience can be told.”Van Ettan continued to speak on the artistic direction of the album as a whole. She commented on the album’s cover art, saying, “I wanted to convey that in an image with me walking away from it all… not necessarily brave, not necessarily sad, not necessarily happy.”