Lovelorn and lyrical, Van Etten tells all

But the last bit of gratitude is especially poignant in its frankness. She extends a thank you to “everyone that ever broke my heart, without whom I would never have written these songs.’’

That openhearted confession is symbolic of the entire album, which, fittingly, is called “Because I Was in Love.’’ Devastating, direct, and mostly acoustic, it’s one of the year’s most compelling records that you probably haven’t even heard.

“I’m the kind of person that when I’m in love I give everything,’’ Van Etten says at a Brooklyn restaurant not far from her apartment. “It hasn’t happened often - I’ve had three loves in my life - but I’m still learning how much is too much to give. My mom always said, ‘Sharon, you always take in the wounded birds.’ I like a challenge. I don’t like anything that comes easily. You’ve got to fight.’’

Van Etten, who opens for the Great Lake Swimmers tonight at the Middle East Downstairs, speaks from experience. The lovesick lyrics on “Because I Was in Love’’ read like innermost thoughts ripped from the journal of a young woman navigating love’s uncertain, and often rocky, terrain.

The fact that her songs finally have a life outside Van Etten’s bedroom marks a breakthrough. For years she had embodied the tenets of the modern-day troubadour - making music at home, free of a label’s constraints, and selling it directly to her growing number of fans who discovered her online or maybe at a concert.

Van Etten - who at 28 still has the shy demeanor and sweet smile of an aloof high-school girl you suspect is an amazing artist in private - had been very much on her own. Using nothing more than her laptop’s basic internal microphone, she recorded her songs with a decidedly lo-fi aesthetic. In lieu of an official album, she sold handmade CD-Rs, decorated with cover images clipped from her mother’s 1950s magazines and stored in slips made from paper bags she got at the liquor store where she was working.

She enjoyed the do-it-yourself aspect of making art, and it gave her a personal connection to her admirers that her music naturally imparted.

“Whenever I write, it’s usually like I’m trying to talk to a person - things that I either wanted to say or things that I’m saying to a friend,’’ she says. “They’re conversational lyrics.’’

And you can hear that on songs like “I Wish I Knew’’: “I wish I knew/ What to do with you/ But the truth is/ I ain’t got a clue/ Do you?’’ On “Much More Than That,’’ she is more firm: “Please don’t take me lightly/ I mean every word/ Whichever way you’d like to place them.’’ Later in the song she admits, “I write this moment down/ ’Cause I cannot paint pictures with my tongue.’’

Not, of course, that the people who inspired those lines necessarily appreciate her honesty. She mentions the boyfriend who didn’t want her to write songs at all. “He said my stuff was too personal and didn’t want his friends to know about our love life.’’

But intimacy is the linchpin of Van Etten’s music, and she admits she was careful to keep it intact in the studio. She recorded “Because I Was in Love’’ with Greg Weeks, who has an impeccable record of drawing out the warmth and immediacy of his own band, Espers, and singer-songwriters such as Marissa Nadler and Fern Knight.

“When I first heard Sharon’s home recordings, I was pretty blown away by their strength and emotional depth. They are great, sad, emotionally raw songs sung by a gal with a huge voice and a stunningly natural delivery,’’ Weeks says. “The main thing I noticed beyond that was how good I thought they could sound under better recording conditions.’’

To that end, Weeks and Van Etten gave her songs a minimalist sheen, keeping the acoustic melodies austere while adding reverb to the astral harmonies. The music sounds evergreen in a way that suggests it could have been recorded in the 1960s or last week. Van Etten’s voice, a warm soprano that can pierce with its purity, guides the music like a beacon.

“Sharon gets lumped by lazy reviewers into the depressive singer-songwriter category all too often with no acknowledgment of her transcendent melodicism and beguiling charisma,’’ Weeks says. “Sharon is all honesty and openness as a person, and that comes through in her music.’’

Van Etten realizes “Because I Was in Love’’ has established a perception that her music is spare and unvarnished, but she’s not afraid to move beyond that. In fact, she’s eager to; lyrically, she’s stretching out on her new material that she describes as more aggressive as it addresses the struggles of city life.

“The last album was all about being personal and confessional and letting people know that I’m just like you, that I want to have a conversation with you,’’ she says. “I want the next one to be something different. Maybe I need to get past this journal-entry mode.’’

James Reed can be reached at jreed@globe.com.