Angel Olsen

On the first run through i didnt hear anytbing i liked as much as “sister.” But that’s a tall order. The album sounded really good—I’m sure on repeat listenings a few of the songs will really connect more.

i've been reading her longwinded instagram posts talking about it for the last 3+ months. i guess if you like the album, there's a lot to dig into.

for me it just felt like all that goodwill and humanist rapport she developed with my angel and phases is being tossed aside for melodrama and over the top showmanship.

when i actually heard the music she had been going on about, i just thought, "huh. okay."

idk, whole image of the new record seems like a put-on to me. like she saw grimes' social media antics from the last couple years and went, "yeah, like that, but with a smidgen more integrity."

― Totally different head. Totally. (Austin), Friday, October 4, 2019 1:15 PM (eight minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

lmao wtf

but yeah: it's me that just doesn't get this one. i'm truly glad you guys are into it.

she always seems to be making the album SHE wants to make and i appreciate that about her. maybe it's not what you want or what her fans want or whatever but it's her album and it's what she wants. it's her music after all! i can't imagine being nitpicked this way. it would make me lose my shit.

what i was trying to say is that it doesn't really feel like her anymore.

but again: i will fully concede that i don't get it.

but it IS her -- she made it
maybe she isn't the her you want her to be but she is definitively still herself; i don't think there's a svengali lurking behind the curtain making her wear headpieces

well, like i said, that's great!

not my vibe though.

going back to abdullah ibrahim and new wave records now.

i went through her instagram to try to understand what austin could possibly be talking about and i'm still just as confused. there's nothing weird there or remotely comparable to grimes's antics. it's fine to not get this one because it's definitely a sonic departure, though her songwriting at the core feels the same, but all the stuff complaining about her image is baffling

The songs I've heard from the new one haven't gotten me, but I haven't spent much time with them. I loved the early, mannered folky stuff, did not get captured by Burn Your Fire, and loved, loved, loved My Woman. One of my favorite things about her was her NPR interview where she talked about how into Mariah Carey she was at 12 - and I'm not that into Mariah Carey -- and I'm not that into Mariah Carey.

Seeing her for the first time in November.

By the way, I'm not that into Mariah Carey.

I have only one question: Is Mazzy Tsar into Mariah Carey?

Lol.

The shift in Sister when it takes off at the end is one of my favorite music moments of the last five years.

no mention of Scott walker? listening to 4 recently - seems like an obvious reference - except walker is far weirder - this one is just too heavy and drenched for me to get a handle on right now

i am so in love with this record

every song sounds as good or better than the last, and even with the (wonderful) clotted string arrangements it's never suffocating, cf. "what it is" is so light on its feet

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

― Johnny Fever, Friday, October 4, 2019

never gonna be able to unhear this now lol

it’s susanne sundfør in hell

hahaha

i am...really liking this

why

because it’s incredible

Couldn't get into this at all - to my ears it seems like it's trying too hard to be a Lana Del Rey album.

chalk and cheese

or rather, there was more ambition, sonic depth and intrigue in the opening track of this than in ldr's entire career so far, and having heard the first four tracks i am v excited to hear the rest

I'm not sure what they have in common. They're records made by women?

they have very little in common. i guess honeymoon is saturated in uneasy string arrangements

chalk and cheese sounds like a classic LJ culinary experiment

both have plenty of calcium. just like olsen and ldr both use drums

or rather, there was more ambition, sonic depth and intrigue in the opening track of this than in ldr's entire career so far, and having heard the first four tracks i am v excited to hear the rest

― imago, Tuesday, October 8, 2019

not on this thread to debate crazy-ass challops, but lol

this could do with losing some filler from the second half but it's been a good listen

what's the filler!!!

sorry i got very surprised by this, to the point where it is my album of the year?

tracks 8-10 didn't quite hit the same spot and got me thinking that impasse -> change would be a killer ending. here's where it turns out your favourite track is one of my filler choices lol

think the title track is mine

or 'too easy'

these first three/four tracks are something

here's where it turns out your favourite track is one of my filler choices lol

― imago, Tuesday, October 8, 2019 1:03 PM (five minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

summer!

it's not my favorite track but it's wonderful, a perfect shift in pace and mood right before the closer, the bassline makes you expect disco and then it becomes something wilder and sadder and it reminds me of the yeah yeah yeahs' show your bones

oh i nearly forgot about those synths at the end too

ok maybe, it could open up

tracks 1-4 are legit on course for an lj five-bagger, 5-7 great too, i guess i'll be patient with the rest

reminds me of the yeah yeah yeahs

dude i think you just summed up my lack of appreciation for this record way better than i ever could have.

austin i can't even tell if you've listened to this record or if you've dismissed it because of her instagram, please stop

you made the comparison man. i was struggling to figure out just what was so offputting about it to me, and what you said there was a better articulation than i've been able to manage.

that the vocal melody of one song reminded me of the yeah yeah yeahs? you're still overdoing it

everyone itt arguing with austin who iirc hasn't heard the record and decided he wouldn't like it based on the angel olsen's insta posts reminding him of grimes (yes, this is the reason he doesn't like this album) would be better of doing literally anything with their time

lol brad okay man. my post was genuine. you drew the comparison and it resonated and made sense for me. that anything by angel is reminiscent of yyys is disappointing. and it goes back to what i was saying earlier: this new record and rollout just seems overproduced and overbearing; not at all what i liked her music for in the past.

just bc of this stupid argument i have looked at angel olsen's instagram and am enjoying the relatively short series of professional photographs accompanied by paragraphs about the process of making the record and/or music videos

I chose All Mirrors as the title of this upcoming record because I liked the theme; the theme of how we are all mirrors to and for each other. Even if that is not the complete truth, still, there is always an element of personal projection in what we’d like to see in others and in all scenarios.

good stuff imo

brad is OTM about "summer" - one of my favourites too - but the rhetorical position that anything by angel being reminiscent of yyys would be disappointing is amazingly sweeping, and implicitly incurious about music's ability to make connections between things that not only are unexpected but also change the effect of those things

ok 'summer' is actually good, 'tonight' is the one that kills the momentum. guess that's what the skip button is for ('endgame' seems like a skipper too)

"tonight" has a kind of static vocal melody that reminds me of older angel olsen song but the strings are devastating and unskippable. "endgame" seems of a piece with "choice" with me, two gorgeous classic-sounding melodies right alongside each other

er "chance"*