Angel Olsen

it is the opposite for me, there is a sincerity to her lyrics and vocals that i really like

i listened to "heart-shaped face" and "sister" this morning, those lyrics about change in each of them i just love

"i've seen you changing / i've seen you aging"

"all my life i thought i'd change ... all my life i thought i'd change"

I read the MY WOMAN lyrics start to finish to see if I could find the irony I thought I heard, and there's not a bit. They read like a lost mid-80s Debbie Gibson record. That is until you get to Sister and it's like, whoa.

there's a continuity to her lyrics thematically over the last two records, burn yr fire felt focused on lost love and all the regret involved, whereas the new one is reconciliation with that.

This is haunting stuff:
https://youtu.be/icA5u-IOBEM

i can't stop listening to my woman. i've been playing a lot of her older stuff too but it seems like such an immense artistic leap happened between the older records and this one

Her band is so good on those long tracks like "Special" and "Sister" - it doesn't seem like the kind of music that demands three electric guitars but there's space for each of them to do something and the way they build tension is fantastic.

Listening to those two back to back makes me appreciate the rougher edges of "Special" even more.

another song from the new collection
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kI_4c-LJ9Xc

live version
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cWTDDr-EYTM

"special"!

Anyone into the new one?

I was very taken by the cover art of the new one, so I gave it a spin last night and geeked out when I discovered there was a cover of "Tougher Than the Rest" on it.

ooh, tougher than the rest cover you say...

listening now, this is (at least from tttr onwards) very understated, like her first albums, she really has something very special about her that make these simple acoustic guitar songs spellbinding

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wLvIOzIqljc

some of angel olsen's songs are just fucking incredible. i love the psychedelic guitar sounds on this one.

love it

"sister" off the last album is a song i play a lot and think about a lot. "All my life I thought I'd change"

Sweet dreams rules. Orbison-Chris Isaac vibe with some dirty rock n roll

I had never heard her Springsteen cover, not sure I like the alone in a laundry room vibe to it. Also, I think she changes a minor chord to a major chord, which really alters the mood dramatically for me.

My current fave Angel Olsen track is 'The Waiting' off the first record. Glorious song.

Hey josh, alone in a laundry room is a good comparison. Ymmv but the latter half of the record is in that vein and a total bummer. First half is fairly solid tho

Phases is good. I was wrong. Good record for unwinding.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oZFfyaS65tc

angel sings backing here, album debuted at 25 on alternative chart according to the comments :)

i think sister is one of the best songs i've ever heard

indeed

i should listen to phases again. it didn't grip me like "my woman" but it's possible that's my fault. she's really brilliant.

phases is a tough sell, i posted about it ad nauseam earlier so will try not to repeat myself but it dovetails in the second half into a real downer of a record - sparse, ragged acoustic and more like her earlier material. by the end of the album i was done with my hard liquor and felt like dying, it is a real bummer.

interesting. she's one of those songwriters who really makes you feel what she wants you to feel so i can imagine if she wanted to she could really pummel her listeners with despair.

totally! give it a second chance perhaps :)

also the first few tracks are fire so it may be unfair to expect the rest to follow suit, and it is a bsides collection as well.

I had never heard her Springsteen cover, not sure I like the alone in a laundry room vibe to it. Also, I think she changes a minor chord to a major chord, which really alters the mood dramatically for me.

― Josh in Chicago, Thursday, February 8, 2018 4:32 PM (seven months ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

great post

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jjt698Zv5jQ

new album All Mirrors out October 4, produced by John Congleton

the single is really good, love the blend of synths and orchestration. it's a shift in sound (but not songwriting) but it makes a lot of sense after the last one

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FuJ2yitJI_U

oh and i guess her song with mark ronson from recently never got posted here, it's pretty nice

i've been listening to the Ronson/Olsen track every day this summer

everything seems to indicate this is going to be her goth album i'm excited

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6uaN60k0-zY

wow

Wow. That was dramatic.

catchy -_-

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5X0q3WZwSLE

this is a good performance

the album is quite good too, though i don't think it's on the same level as my woman but i never really expected it to be. my woman captured that dreamy folk rock vibe perfectly with "sister"/"those were the days"/"woman" and this one is going for something very different. the 80s goth synths with real strings on top, both blending in with the synths and being extremely dramatic, is a great sound but it's almost too much by the end of it. this probably sounds more negative than i actually feel about it though idk. i think "new love cassette" is my favourite with the way the strings fit the most naturally with the plodding synths.

i'm looking forward to the alternate solo version of the album that's apparently coming next year

this is an excellent john cale album

This is a perfect illustration of why arrangements matter so much, so much of this could so easily have sounded entirely bog-standard in a Sharon van Etten album track way but nearly every single song has a surprise in it or a moment that turns the music on its head.

The whole way through this, I was thinking "Susanne Sundfør, but drowsy" which, I guess, is a place I'd like to visit occasionally.

haven't heard the whole album, but i did totally get susanne sundfor vibes from 'lark.' wasn't blown away by any of her previous records, but i've liked a whole bunch of individual songs. will hopefully check this out today.

Very curious what the tour is going to be like, if she's reworking her older material with the strings/etc.

have been really put off by this whole rollout to be completely honest. don't think i'll be checking this one out.

It's possible I'm listening to this album in the same week when I really dug into Weyes Blood, and I'm hearing simlar things.

this is an excellent john cale album

― american bradass (BradNelson), Friday, October 4, 2019 10:57 AM (two hours ago)

i love john cale albums -- what makes you say that?

so much of this could so easily have sounded entirely bog-standard in a Sharon van Etten album track way

What’s wrong with sharon can etten? She’s great.

Can’t wait to listen to the new angel olsen though. Love her.

i love john cale albums -- what makes you say that?

― weird woman in a bar (La Lechera), Friday, October 4, 2019 11:16 AM (eight minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

sumptuous chamber music arrangements plus general sense of playfulness within those arrangements plus good vocal melodies. bit of an inexact comparison but i didn't feel wrong making it

hey that sounds good to me. i just wondered what it was about john cale albums that you were referring to -- there are so many things to like and he has so many different types of albums, each of them different and yet totally john cale albums :) serious + playful is an appealing combo!

In his albums Cale projects a sense of quashed danger, an animal pacing behind a cage. I haven't paid much attention to her since Burn Your Fire for No Witness, which was okay?

I've only heard a couple of tracks and i dislike the arrangements/production