Angel Olsen

Maybe it’s not fair to blame overhypedness on anything other than the hypers

not to make excuses but the overcompression on this makes it feel almost uncomfortably intimate doesn't it? cld do w/o e.g. the crackling at the end of "lark" but otherwise the effect's actually great

There are some good songs on this but my Lord it is slow as molasses. Hey Angel, loosen up, kid. Swing, baby!

Hey Angel, loosen up, kid. Swing, baby!

― kornrulez6969, Monday, October 14, 2019 3:37 PM (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

cf. "what it is"

'Summer' rules.

first couple listens, i was put off a bit by the Congleton crunch, but i've really fallen head over heels for this record. besides the justly-praised opening four tracks, my favorites are 'chance' (very twin peaks-y) and 'what it is' (would never in a million years have expected her to write a song with a shuffle beat but she did and it sounds so great)

Spring is basically a Beach House track

Anyone seen her on her present tour? I'm about to go tonight and I'm both excited and curious to see how arrangements will work.

Seeing her in a couple weeks

I saw the first show of the tour. She was super-apologetic about it being their first show, and kept saying "this is rehearsal for us," though it sounded okay to me. I hadn't listened much to the new album at that time, so I couldn't really play spot the differences, but the string parts came across well.

She's also got a fancy new lighting rig, which was a highlight (heh).

is there anything better than this album

I saw her for the first time last night and she was really great. Fun stage presence with lots of chatter, coy then bubbly at times, overall very confident presentation - this was exactly the show she wants to put on.

I only recognized three songs (All Mirrors, Sister, Shut Up Kiss Me) because I haven't engaged with the new album enough to really differentiate the songs (which might be partly the fault of the album in that it doesn't seem as varied as the predecessor). Her voice is something else. Very impressive live. Seven piece band and light show were fantastic. The screen behind the band with the staircase kept reminding me of the cover of She Hangs Brightly.

She played "Sister"?? I envy you

Yeah her on stage presence is some of the most charismatic I’ve seen. Every All Mirrors song was an emotional rush, the older songs weren’t quite as powerful imo, except that one from her first record which played beautifully within the set. Also the Mark Ronson cover at the end was a lot of fun.

She played "Sister"?? I envy you

Yeah, it is the song I was most wanting to hear. <3 it so much.

Ok, I just got All Mirrors on vinyl. Between this and seeing her live I am on board with the new album. It's very maximalist even in its quieter moments.

I'm having trouble getting into this one still - the arrangements have a "hat on a hat" quality for me - but I do want to rep for her song on the Mark Ronson album

I listened as intensely as I did to the second Big Thief album, but the Olsen couldn't hold itself together in my mind.

i do not get people that don’t get this album, alfred’s allergy to her whole career excepted

I only mention BT because I spent a week in October incessantly playing both.

Saw her last night in LA and she was terrific.

She did a cover of a jazz standard at the end that didn’t recognize. I think she said it was by Mildred or Meredith someone? Was anyone else there or did she play it elsewhere on her tour? My wife and I wanted to look up the original.

i saw her last night and she did indeed play that last song which was a cover of a song that i didn't recognize and i don't remember the name. the fact that she's playing it often means hopefully you'll be able to find mention of it somewhere online.

show was great, she is very good live, voice sounds wonderful.

i am still not a huuuuge fan, because i just don't really love that many of her songs, but it was a v good show to see and if you really like her records you should go see her play.

just by combing setlist.fm she seems to mostly end with "True Blue" but that is decidedly not a jazz standard so idk

oh wait, i think she played that song as the penultimate song before doing a full band encore (i was drunk)

I was at that show too lol. Very accurate review!

i looked it up and the jazz standard is "more than you know", with the version she referred to being the mildred bailey one

Amazing, thank you for identifying that!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oeY6hfMyN_Y

Angel Olsen released a new album today called Whole New Mess:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z3_9FSfpADA

This had been billed as an alternate version of All Mirrors but honestly it just feels like demos.

I love her voice and it's amazingly strong, so I don't know why she always puts such heavy treatments on it.

really enjoying the new record more than All Mirrors

i never really got into all mirrors, the arrangements just kept me admiring at a distance instead of being really into it. this unfortunately feels the same way with that cavernous reverb

Agree w/ufo. Somehow the music videos made my experiences listening to All Mirrors feel incomplete, as though the songs were made for the visuals and not the other way round. On first listen I prefer this.

anyone else preferring Whole New Mess to All Mirrors?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ibj87fwRaM

new song with sharon van etten, it's pretty nice. sounds like it's just a one off though

SVE has been killing it lately.

I love this song. It has a 80s power ballad vibe that’s perfect for me.

love these two

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y65olvSNTEw

Gloria was bad. This is less bad, but still bad. idk

these covers really aren't playing to her strengths at all

This would be better filtered way down so it sounds like you’re hearing it from three rooms over.

I've just grown weary of the whole "take an uptempo 80s song and make it morose" approach, and while nothing will ever be worse than what Lorde did to Tears For Fears, these are close.

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

"I will say originally I wrote this song in 2017, 2018 when I was on tour. I was trying to get Sturgill Simpson to sing it. I was trying to sell it, give it to people. I was like, "Who would want to sing this?" And eventually I started writing more songs that were kind of along the same lines or sort of kin to it, from the record. And I thought, maybe it's time to embrace the fact that I'm not afraid to embrace these roots and to embrace where I live and how it's affected me, and to embrace just a minimal feeling, and to just be straight up about stuff."

really like this song/sound, the last two records never grabbed me.

this is nice, like it more than the last album

Loved the last album and also extremely ready for this new direction

oh this sounds amazing