Angel Olsen

...is the best thing I've heard in a while. Anyone else?

For the uninitiated: http://www.myspace.com/ghostgrocersings
And this: http://vimeo.com/13511912

Dammit. She's, obviously, not a thing. I meant to put the name of her Bathetic cassette release, Strange Cacti, in the title.

"Half Way Home" is really really nice.

It is

I like her voice a lot.

all about this lady tbh

Will Oldham/Palace/Bonnie Prince Billie: S&D

i keep thinking the angel haze thread is her thread. i like this record! at first i didn't think i liked her voice, but it has really grown on me.

Wow. Half Way Home. This is some good stuff.

She is so good! I love it when people with beautiful voices have the confidence to sing in weird ways. I don't usually have the stomach for introspective confessional songwriting, but I can ignore what she's saying because her voice is interesting to listen to. Why is this thread so short?

i don't know! she keeps sounding better and better with every listen. otm about her being kind of un-ignorable -- not the sort of thing I'd put on as background music. but great.
this is good: http://folkadelphia.bandcamp.com/album/angel-olsen-folkadelphia-session-11-13-2012

Angel's pretty great. I imagine that her next record will raise her profile quite a bit, but who knows? Still don't think that that many people know her right now though.

I stumbled on this youtube because I recognized her name as someone who's going to be at pfork but I didn't really know what her deal was and it turns out she totally rules. she's talented enough to sleepwalk, but she totally doesn't.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V97LaGh78gQ

i don't love the girl groupy stuff as much as the folk stuff but this song rules too
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sekbCD_oFl0

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8weHJh4ha7s

here she totally belts it like linda ronstadt
it's awesome
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hh9Z_XRh-GU

Wow, Linda R. is a pretty good comparison for her voice at times. Like that song a lot, and her approach to songwriting. Would think the move to Jagjaguwar is going to pull in some fans. Good fit generally.

I hear some Roy Orbison in there too. At the risk of way overgeneralizing about female indie singers, it's refreshing to hear a really good, full-throated voice that doesn't rely on breathy, wispy affectations.

the way she uses the range of her voice is really impressive to me -- she's very deliberate about how she sings each line and it's easy to pay attention to that and forget that the songs themselves are really good!
she is great.

this is a great tune:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DDJ0m4CRRc8

I won free tix to see her with Implodes tomorrow. Yay! I think it's gonna be an interesting show. Don't know if they're playing together or what, but I hope so.

I wish more of her songs were like "The Waiting" (easier said than done I know, that's kind of the "hit"). I like her more when she brings a little intensity rather than doing the folky/melancholy thing.

Yeah, because her voice is so versatile I want her to use it in different ways rather than the easy straightforward way. She doesn't seem afraid of/averse to experimentation though, and I've got this idea that if she is playing with Implodes, it's going to be more than folky strumming/singing. It has to be, right?

Forced myself to buy a bunch of LPs I hadn't heard before or knew nothing about today, and Strange Cacti was one of them. So far it seems like the jewel of the bunch; Olsen's voice is remarkable. Guess I'll have to catch up with Half Way Home now.

whoa she's great. and touring with cian nugent soon!

She's playing tomorrow night and I'm gonna try to get down to it.

she does some things incredibly well. her voice reminds me in spots of suzanne langille for some reason, a bit of nina nastasia perhaps?

new song is considerably rocked up but it is good! will definitely go see an olsen/nugent double bill.

as noted above, I think that's a good thing

When I saw her she didn't actually play WITH Implodes, and in retrospect I'm not sure why i thought she would. I want her to either sing something weird and wordless or go full belt a la Linda Ronstadt.

But who cares what I want -- she should do what she wants!!

here are those tour dates --
02/18 Charlottesville, VA The Southern
02/20 New York, NY La Poisson Rouge
02/22 Nashville, TN The Stone Fox
02/23 Fayetteville, AR JR's Lightbulb Club
02/24 Dallas, TX Three Links
02/25 Austin, TX Red 7
03/01 San Diego, CA Soda Bar
03/02 Los Angeles, CA The Echoplex
03/03 San Francisco, CA Great American Music Hall
03/05 Portland, OR Mississippi Studios
03/06 Vancouver, British Columbia Media Club
03/07 Seattle, WA Barboza
03/08 Moscow, ID Mikey's Gyros
03/10 Denver, CO Larimer Lounge

i mean, if there is any doubt about whether or not to see her live, she is really really charming and super talented. she's also relaxed and a very natural performer. she has a real presence, and you should see her if you have the opportunity and inclination.

I intend to, even though the venue is basically a tiny room in a bar with everyone awkwardly standing and bad sound.

that said, i found her backing band somewhat dull, like they lacked imagination or something.
is it her solo or with band?

she's playing at the echoplex here. bad venue, they booked roedelius the same night as a house DJ in the next room, ruined his performance.

uh what? that is awful. how could anyone do that to roedelius?!
or angel olsen.

I imagine it's solo but I don't know

gah that live version of "drunk and with dreams" posted upthread (the co-prosperity clip) is soooo good. she's like roy orbison or something.

Oh cool, the Olsen/Nugent bill is coming to Charlottesville. Definitely gonna go if I am in town.

really liking this record

Yes, it's a beauty.

It's about half good. She's better with rockers, "Windows" excepted.

I've only just discovered her; I've been playing both albums on rotation, and I've snapped up tickets to see her next month. <3 her

I want to give this more time, but I really really don't like the way it's mixed so far.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=92Ar3rMoQKo

Finally getting around to the new one and damn, it's great! Am I right in thinking she's raised her game a bit on this?

I saw her in in the tiny and packed out Soup Kitchen venue in Manchester on Sunday night and she was terrific. Most of her set was songs from her new album, which was a touch disappointing as I prefer Half Way Home, personally. But her voice, especially on a long, slow-burning version of "White Fire", was spellbinding.

My favorite part of the album are the last three songs, Dance Slow Decades reminds me of Marling.

"Burn Your Fire" is one of my favorite things of the year, definitely a weird mash of Johnny Cash and post-punk weirdness in the background. It's that backing that makes the new one far better than her debut for me.

I haven't heard the debut yet but this new one is fantastic.

I've listened to the debut a couple of times and find it inconsistent and eventually annoying. The broader sound palette of BYF makes it much more interesting to me. Ymmv.

Never got into Burn Your Fire but it's really mostly the fault of the mixing/production imo. I still seek out videos of her performing, where you get a clearer sound. Def want to see live. Really feel like this lo-fi aesthetic does her a disservice.

How on earth is Burn Your Fire lo-fi beyond the opening acoustic track?

maybe it's a stretch to call it "lo fi," I just mean all that mic distortion and loose barely-turned-up guitar amp distortion. Not a fan of that sound.

Over the last year Burn your Fire has become a firm friend. I put it on when I need someone to listen to my gripes and then when I need someone to hear me yelling at the shit and piss. Strangely, I don't have many real friends. Just this. A bunch of coded files in my phone.

Some days I think this is my favorite album of the year

I actually find some tracks have grown on me a little now

five extra tracks here. http://www.dazeddigital.com/music/article/22516/1/stream-angel-olsen-s-dreamy-deluxe-album-reissue

tried several times (cuz she's the hometown hero) but can't get into it. fantastic voice though.

sometimes I feel like the degree to which she perfected her style outstrips the quality of her songs a little

her musical style I mean -- her sound etc.

Agree that the general feel of the record and sound of/conviction in Olsen's voice are the big draws here, but the songs hold their own. The best of them are as pointed as any I've heard this year.

burn your fire... is my favorite record of 2014

sometimes I feel like the degree to which she perfected her style outstrips the quality of her songs a little

― 18th Century Celebrity WS of Shame (Hurting 2), Thursday, December 4, 2014 3:24 PM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

i think that's accurate for a lot of her songs. she's pretty mesmerizing in person, but many of the songs are kind of meandering and not very memorable

I hear some Roy Orbison in there too. At the risk of way overgeneralizing about female indie singers, it's refreshing to hear a really good, full-throated voice that doesn't rely on breathy, wispy affectations.

― i don't even have an internet (Hurting 2), Wednesday, July 17, 2013 9:23 AM (1 year ago)

the band backup, w/ the rock numbers, brings this out more - minimizes tendencies toward affectedness that were there in the last record too

all that mic distortion and loose barely-turned-up guitar amp distortion. Not a fan of that sound

that is what makes it fire

Yes!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nleRCBhLr3k

SO GOOD

I saw her the other week and the show was a little disappointing but my hopes for this album are sky high anyway. This song rules.

both of these new tunes are pretty great

It's not grabbing me. I got really excited in the first minute but was hoping she'd open up her voice a bit. I like the departure from the last album but her vocals feel more restrained than they should be.

Disregard me. Just jaded. Saw Kevin Morby and Big Thief earlier. Bored out of my mind. Austin is boring. I need to move back to Colorado.

Okay, I'm out.

how am i just finding out about her :(

big thief rules

shut up kiss me is incredible but i will prob avoid her other stuff as i suspect it wont compete.

that's ridiculous
if you like one of her songs, you should listen to more of her songs

what other song would convert a newbie?

idk, she seems to have a whole new look/'tude with the video for that song
i guess it depends on what you like about it
i am not an angel olsen expert, maybe someone else has a better idea but i would suggest listening to songs from the new album if you like that one

album is pretty great on first listen, especially love 'woman' and 'those were the days'

god "sister" fucks me up each and every time

She tones down the gothic-Johnny Cash vibe of the last album, which was key for me.

you mean that like its a good thing or bad?

It's not that it's a *bad* thing, but that Gothhy Cash vibe made her last record stand out from the pack for me. The new record is solid but doesn't reach the same heights as "Burn Your Fire".

i love the new record. just pre-ordered it, actually, after hearing the leak. it is steadier paced and a bit less angry and depressing, so if that's not what you want then you might prefer her last one. but both are great imo.

im going to get this thing anyways cos i am hooked like a goldfish on her thing but yep i liked the flashes of anger on burn your fire but i guess if you havent got any of it then you cant fake it

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-mIA1r2ZELU

fuckin' A, I can't hardly wait for this album

Now that's a song! Wow

Is it her on lead guitar?

i don't think so but her band is fantastic

the variety and slightly lighter overall tone on this new one makes it slightly disappointing for me - but i still think its a decent, listenable album i will continue to spend time with it even if it doesnt have the dark power of burn your fire

the variety and slightly lighter overall tone

excellent!

not pretending to be a finely crafted review there just an off the cuff comment

i do think she is going for a broader kind of appeal with this one

no I'm legit excited for something lighter than the last one

New album can't come fast enough. Hearing the 2014 bore on my student station's MegaSEg for months has started to fuck with my sleep.

right - i see - yep i got the record in the mail a couple of days ago so its early days but i def think it has a different tone from previous - i guess she is exploring different emotions this time around

"Woman" is an amazing track. Scorched closing guitar solo brings it home.

it's much stronger than Burn Your Fire though i get that some would be disappointed in the lack of anything like White Fire etc.

it's one of my favourites of the year, Sister/Those Were The Days/Woman is an incredible run of tracks

first listen to the whole album last night found it (and me) too scattered to form much of a coherent impression; giving it another go this morning & I think I'm liking it more

this record is really gorgeous and dynamic and I am psyched to finally totally enjoy one of her records

Where are you all streaming this? For some reason Apple Music doesn't have the whole album yet, even though it says it's out today

i bought it

buying this monday when local store gets it

so yeah this is sensational

This is excellent. It's streaming on Amazon Prime, I love it.

Just tried this out. Couldn't make it past track 2. Just too much singing and the music isn't my cup of tea. I guess I was expecting something like Julia Holter or Laura Groves, both musicians I really enjoy. Maybe when I just want a generic rock record with female vocals i'll try it again.

Sounds way better than the last one (which I was mostly lukewarm on, a few songs aside), based on one listen.

this still seems like mildly tasty layers of style (vibrato-laden ethereal vocals, lynchian guitar chords) laid over pretty weak songs

(sort of like lana del rey, actually)

pretty weak might be too strong. just... mediocre.

the songs on ultraviolence are tight

it's too bad Olsen threw a bi of shade at LDR recently cause she could make good dough writing her some songs

I'm glad I'm not the only person who was reminded of Ms. del Rey at times

Was not a fan of her last record but Sister in particular is just insanely great. Just has this intensity to it that I'm totally captivated by. Intern and Woman are also incredible.

yeah this grabbed me pretty quickly on one distracted listen, i tried and tried with the last one and it never hit home. picking up a physical copy and i'll dig into it more after that.

i don't hear any similarities to LDR

she's changed her singing style to be a lot breathier, is the main thing

strangely (or not?) this change isnt reflected at all by the singles, so it really jumped out at me on first listen.... *fingers crossed* that this is just a weird creative decision, and not something she resorted to because of vocal strain or w/e

Heard this playing in a record store yesterday and picked it up. Great album!

Her last album was great I do not get all this ho hum talk abt it

yeah that was a great record, quite introverted compared to this one, which is also a p hifi record where BYFFNW was lofi

I'm getting Mazzy Star vibes, touches of VU, Jackson Browne, lotsa good stuff

I checked this out because 'Sister' was pretty epic. The rest of the album is pretty standard pop/rock. Her voice will take some getting used to — it seems a little too loud in the mix and she does that vibrato-y trembling thing a little too often. But, wow, those two longer tracks on the second half are really fantastic.

Let’s „don’t care what the papers say“ (Intern) //

The critical reception of this confuses me: To my ears what we have here is something bland and seriously uninteresting. Musically an unremarkable re-hash of synth-pop ideas (Human League et al.) with the odd dash of an anodyne version of Siouxsie (think cavernous production, think big, think EMA), until the ballads set in. It is all held together by a voice that makes me cringe: Once you have encountered Angel Olsen’s dreadful melisma „Ti-Hi-Hime“ bang at the beginning of „Shut Up Kiss Me“ you discover genuine sophistication in "I wanna hold you ha-ha-ha-ha-hand“. Or am I missing the point which is: „Kiss me, unless you want me to carry on with this.“? A forgettable album, one of those myriads that do not require my attention. One could leave it that, but metacritic assembles evidence that critics find something in this that completely eludes me: A current score of 89 for this (including Pitchfork, but you know, their judgment is shakey from time to time; allmusic; The Guardian; The New York Times; Chicago Herald – blimey!) certainly is something to write home about, but according to metacritic people at home will know anyway. Music for men who cannot get enough of the cocaine sheen in the yearning of Stevie Nicks!
There is a passage brimming with humour in „Sister“, when she sings: „And all this blessing was a curse / before I opened up my ...“ and who would not expect „purse“? However, it turns out, it was her „heart“ that the singer opened at that point – a case of thoroughly defying expectations.
Laura Marling, Julia Holter, Courtney Barnett, Elza Soares, Serafina Steer, Cat Power, Eileen Jewell – they all go to show that the world is not deplete of interesting young and moving female voices producing exciting music.

jfc

what is even going on there. reads like someone improvising a review during their first listen of the record

Two stars.

And I seriously doubt any actual listening to the album took place.

Laura Marling, Julia Holter, Courtney Barnett, Elza Soares, Serafina Steer, Cat Power, Eileen Jewell – they all go to show that the world is not deplete of interesting young and moving female voices producing exciting music.

Elza Soares is 79.

i agree that this was a two-star album review

Here's an overwritten try-hard metacritic user review to counter that:

IanJWalters
Sep 2, 2016
10
Confidently confused, unabashedly devoted to her feelings, she esteems intuition as a goddess worth building an altar for, it seems, instead of just burning a fire. These songs rock and roll. "I dare you to understand what makes me a woman," she croons, at first, then belts the last syllable, stretching it all the way around the earth. Challenge accepted.

Her interview in Rookie goes into her apprehension wrt critics -- pretty interesting, would recommend

The thirst is real in that "review."

Anyone else enamoured by the direction the album takes from "Heart Shaped Face" onwards? Settles into a nice groove with some top tier Olsen tracks ("Sister" and "Woman").

http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2009/03/27/article-1165388-015418CD0000044D-405_468x286.jpg

holy fuck if you have any interest in her music whatsoever you really don't want to miss this tour

Yeah she was great

this album sounds good and the lyrics are good and it is good.

i've heard amazing things about the tour as well.

the "review" austin quoted, while just a single paragraph, felt like enduring an illness. i feel like i've read so many pieces over the years that were basically that: haughty, dismissive, sexist, judging an album by some prefab criteria that the author has just made up but for some reason considers inviolable law.

guess she has paul sukeena playing guitar in her band now (from spacin, steve gunn, solar motel band). that will add some firepower to the live show for sure.

it's like prime dylan and the band at this point. she is straight up killing it

Quick listens haven't wowed me but will give her another chance. She's getting so much favorable attention

it's like prime dylan and the band at this point. she is straight up killing it

― reggie (qualmsley), Tuesday, September 20, 2016 1:34 PM (yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

OK, let's all just calm down now

i'm not even kidding. she is a rolling thunder revue force of nature. she might have the most powerful singing voice i've ever heard. don't miss this!

i'm so excited to see her tonight!

ahhh apparently she is playing burlington tomorrow night and there are still tickets but i have several big work projects due friday :(((((

Get them done early & celebrate w Angel & friends!!

she might have the most powerful singing voice i've ever heard

on some songs her breathy vocals and melodies are too npr-tiny desk-Bob Boilen generic rock for me

My Woman is super great; I liked it since I first heard it but every time I come back to it (which happens with increasing frequency) I like it more.

Just figured out that her backup singer on this album/tour is Heather McEntire of Mount Moriah, who are really good in their own right.

Maybe my expectations were too high but still reckon Burn Your Fire is way better than last record. Just seems more consistent overall - the last one was OK with a few great songs sprinkled through. It does sound more like a carefully considered breakout type record I suppose which i guess the evidence would suggest it was - increasing her profile and audience so thats great and all. Just like the other one better.

Boo, My Woman is so obviously superior in every aspect.

BOO YOU

I prefer Burn as well, but My Woman has some songs that rival anything on Burn IMO "Sister", "My Woman" and "Heart Shaped Face"

Burn hands down. My Woman has some crazy highs though.

my woman is a great record

"sister"! wow

it certainly is, and sister is probably the highlight

saw her in concert at Roskilde Festival, crowd was somewhat noisy which annoyed her, but all the same she seemed very unfocused and unhappy to be there, perhaps intoxicated, not a good show

I saw her a couple years back and she didn't seem happy to be there either. Mind you this was in Vancouver where crowds can be terrible for talking over performers. She made lots of dark sarcastic jokes. Unfortunately I fainted after "Stars" which was the highlight anyway

where is the love for the pine valley cosmonautic CHIVALROUS AMOEKONS, the mekons cover thing she did with will oldham and emmett kelly?

oh i want to hear that

She was great at Pitchfork this year - really enjoyed her and her band - ace playing and stage presence.

ACL taping live stream happening now - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sqzc3lBfJHc

Don't know if they leave it up after the stream ends.

More of a technical question (asking for a friend) but does anyone know what set-up her band uses to get the bass tone on Burn Your Fire

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MQz9OG67wRw

classic track

new b-sides album then soon? cool

she is so good

Love that cover.

I always sense of bunch of off-putting irony and cutesiness in her stuff, which others don't seem to hear

projection?
that's a really cool cover.

yea i really don't get much irony at all from her music, certainly not cutesiness

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

I haven't paid much attention to her since Burn Your Fire for No Witness, which was okay?

― TikTok to the (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Friday, October 4, 2019 11:39 AM (four minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

my woman expanded her sound and is a very good record. regardless i think this one outdoes it in every way

"All Mirrors" didn't click for me until I played it while driving (which is much louder than I play anything at home)

I'm surprised she's trending on Twitter tbh

Why? She’s awesome and also cool.

she's really got it all imo
whether she has the ability to have a long and varied career, we will see. i hope so!

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."

this new record needs more "shut up kiss me" and less fancy headpieces.

i thought you weren't listening to it

i have literally no idea what this record has to do with grimes

super weird take - visual presentation has been a big part of her last two cycles. Her band toured in matching powder blue tuxes for the last one and she had a lineup of Sophia Loren-esque dresses for stage apparel

I've never felt as bad for a mid-level touring band as seeing them in those tuxes on stage, it must have been torture in a 100-degree packed club under stage lights

I don’t think she is similar at all to grimes. Looking at her social media now—hadn’t ever paid attention to it—and it seems like a similar vintagey style she is rocking.

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"*

i spoke maybe too soon, 'endgame' sounded better this go around. 'tonight' is a hard sell but given how much i like the rest of the album it'll have no choice but to grow on me idk

maintain that those first four tracks are where this album goes from good to mindblowing

they're all stunners that's for sure

all the ways that "all mirrors" reminds me of new order
the bleary guitars at the end of "too easy"
everything about "new love cassette," walk around the block in the crisp fall air to this one

'all mirrors' gave me vibes of the teardrop explodes - the great dominions, it does that melodic postpunk thing so smartly, gr8 bassline too

First four tracks are indeed hard to top but it doesn't feel frontloaded.

"too easy" is one of the weaker tracks imo (though by no means bad)

Couldn't get into this. Nothing interesting about the melodies imo and is takes itself too serious and too dramatic for my taste at least.
Overhyped? Time will tell. I might be wrong of course.

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

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8QXDHL_c65M

lovely

well, it certainly embraces a minimal feeling

the world said, give us more soporific jazz-inflected lanacore, give us the be my baby beat slowed down to quarter-speed, and angel heard the world

i love this album

I think I do too. Wasn't expecting to.

Listening now.

Listening to the album. I like the overall mood so far.
I loved "All the good times" and the album seems to follow in that direction.

One listen so far - totally love it. Great follow up to All Mirrors, the country elements suit her really well. My be the first album since the Big Thief album earlier this year where I feel really excited to replay it often, from the moment I heard the opening track.

I didn't care for All Mirrors and actively disliked the 80s covers EP, so that's why I'm surprised by how much I vibe with this one.

all mirrors was grand and distant, i never connected with it either

this one seems to pick up where the second half of my woman left off

this album is great but you're all so wrong about all mirrors

This is a Lee Hazlewood record, so probably my favorite of hers so far. I, too, object to the All Mirrors backlash!

All Mirrors is great. Her anti-vax comments put me off her last two years' output, but this is great, too. Lee Hazlewood, otm.

lol i had no idea about that, depressing

I guess it was comment, not comments, tbf.

apparently she backed down too? but lol

Didn't she just share one hippie COVID video early on and then said she got fooled or something?

(said she got fooled in the worst possible way - "got played, playa" IIRC)

This is a Lee Hazlewood record, so probably my favorite of hers so far. I, too, object to the All Mirrors backlash!

Letting this album settle in a little more - still love it.

That said the "country" narrative that preceded the release is a little overblown. (Is that the theme of 2022? See also the new Wilco album which is an even worse offender.) It fades away after the first few tracks and only reappears here and there. The rest is great, akin to All Mirrors, just not super country.

If it takes me a minute to get over that, it's because a) it was a selling point; b) it's what I REALLY wanted; and c) the first two tracks totally deliver so the pivot away from the country elements feels a little deflating. The songs are still great they just aren't syncing with my expectations.

That gripe aside I think this album starts really strong and ends on a great run of songs. The middle third loses some of the momentum - like the album just slows down to Angel's ballad mode a little sooner than I want it to.

It's a solid album but I don't hear country, not in the Miranda Lambert or Charlie Worsham sense. Y'all know Nicole Atkins? She tried something like this in 2017. A better record.

When people talk about country in the indie realm, they aren't talking about Miranda Lambert or Charlie Worsham and you know that.

Also, that Nicole Atkins record you're talking about is a different thing imo—more Memphis-y country, Dusty Springfield style, which this is decidedly not.

Then people in the indie realm should be more precise, that's not my problem. If they mea in the Jason Isbell sense, then say so.

and I'd say Nicole Atkins is in the Tanya Tucker and Patty Loveless wing of big-voiced country, not Dusty Springfield, so those indie realm fans should be more precise -- but they aren't listening to Tucker or Loveless.

Oh get real, you DID NOT come to an Angel Olsen record expecting it to sound anything like Miranda Lambert. Get down from the cross.

xp the Nicole Atkins record has horn sections and behind the beat grooves all over it. I was being PRECISE.

I did not. I'm trying to define what posters mean by "country." The fuck are you so upset about?

Get down from the cross.

Who the fuck are you talking to here?

Only a plebe would cue up an Angel Olsen "country" record expecting it to sound like 21st century popular country music, and you're definitely not a plebe, so it came across as very disingenuous. It was the Isbell crack that put me on edge, though, because it's not like that either.

Without getting into the billionth authenticity argument, I'll just say that there's stuff written to a pro tools grid and stuff that's more traditional and loose, and you can like both, one or the other, or neither. But they're very different.

the country influence has definitely been overstated in the press, like it's really just the first two tracks & "this is how it works" where it's prominent

It's like the Wilco record, mentioned above, where people hear a pedal or lap steel and think GODDAM IT'S COUNTRY MUSIC! Some people bitch about Americana even being a term/genre, but I guess we've gotta call it something, and I'd call about half of the record Americana.

When I play an Angel Olsen album, even with pedal steel guitar, I expect it to sound closer to Phoebe Bridgers and, yes, Jason Isbell: well-wrought singer-songwriter material.

I don't know what you mean by your second paragraph, not when Lambert can write and perform to or without a Pro Tools grid, as she's proven in the last 12 months. And Olsen may use Pro Tools -- and who cares if she did?

People like Charlie Hughes and Jewly Hight can give better definitions for Americana, and my distillation is "folk music with the same roots as country but without the kitsch or the sops to an ever-shifting audience."

where people hear a pedal or lap steel and think GODDAM IT'S COUNTRY MUSIC!

and there's not even that much of it here

ok I'm just going to dance around all that back-and-forth and try to respond in good faith.

Obviously being "country" can mean a lot of things. Miranda Lambert is not a stand-in for country any more than Jason Isbell or anyone else. I didn't expect her to sound like either of those. Yeah maybe the "indie" version of going country is just being a little rootsier and adding some traditionally country instruments like pedal steel. If this entire album sounded like the first two tracks I would say "this is Angel's country album." That's not the same as saying "someone book her at the Grand Ole Opry and get her on the country radio stations and put her on tour with Morgan Wallen or whoever. So yeah maybe there is an unspoken indie/country crossover vibe here and I'll just try to ignore anyone who might scoff at the notion.

Within that crossover I look at someone like Waxahatchee, whose last album was way more Americana than anything else she's done prior. It may not be some pure epitome of Country Music but I sure do think the world of it and it works on my mixes alongside other acts I like, like Josh Ritter and Margo Cilker and Neko Case and Lillie Mae. And hell, she just did a duet with Wynonna Judd.

Angel Olsen is not someone I'd have added to that mix but there are probably four songs on this album that could fit. And Angel herself was teasing that this was the direction of the album. I'm glad she's going in this direction, this is my favorite album from her to date, and also I wish she'd taken it even further because I don't think it fully delivers on what she was teasing.

several xps Since we're using Miranda as an example, everything about the new record, or her last several, is recorded to be directly on the beat down to like thousandths of a second, no imperfections, no swing, no nothing. Some people (a lot of people, tbh) love that, because that's what popular music sounds like now regardless of genre. That's "the grid."

You can also make an album recording into pro tools without writing to the grid. It can be loose and messy and imperfect, like it was for most of the history of recorded music, but you can't get a hit single now that way.

Good post, pgwp, thanks.

Since we're using Miranda as an example, everything about the new record, or her last several, is recorded to be directly on the beat down to like thousandths of a second, no imperfections, no swing, no nothing. Some people (a lot of people, tbh) love that, because that's what popular music sounds like now regardless of genre. That's "the grid."

But it's also how country sounded when Owen Bradley, Billy Sherrill, Rodney Crowell, Chips Moman, you name'em, recorded their clients. You're creating an authenticity binary b/w this and "loose and messy and imperfect."

and Olsen sounds...rather precise and on-the-nose to me, which is description not criticism.

Nah, there's a difference between recording to a click and digitally snapping drums/guitars/etc to a precise point on the grid in post production. I'm surprised that with as many types of music as you listen to you can't tell which is which.

"loose and messy and imperfect" doesn't necessarily mean Sonic Youth on Confusion Is Sex. It can just mean it has some modicum of naturalness.

I don't think it matters? Certainly not as a basis to judge authenticity or whatever. I mean, Lambert's huge, but she's not attracting Wallen fans precisely because they regard her as traditional (and Lambert released an acoustic album, as you know, with two of her collaborators last year, so she's comfortable in any mode) There's no winning.

Anyway, sorry to derail it to this degree. pgwp did a better job of capturing the reasons I read your initial comment with a raised eyebrow.

This album sounds much closer to Twin Peaks Roadhouse than any country/Americana.

Which is rooted in 50s/early 60s stuff like Roy Orbison (who in turn has cinematic country/rockabilly elements), which has always been a strong vein in Olsen's work, imo.

I didn't care for All Mirrors and actively disliked the 80s covers EP, so that's why I'm surprised by how much I vibe with this one.

yes, a pleasant surprise indeed

Jonathan Wilson is a good producer

not to add to thread derail but the Marfa Tapes was one of my big eoy discoveries, wonderful record, very off the grid which is a big part of the appeal

Twin Peaks Roadhouse

Yeah, I never thought about that being a proper aesthetic, but it's definitely become one.

the twin peaks comment is otm, but it’s executed really well. the arrangements on songs like “right now” and “through the fires” are stunning

This has nothing to do with the new album, which I haven't heard in full, but... I recently heard Emmylou Harris's "Wrecking Ball" for the first time, and realized it would sound perfectly at home on My Woman.

Sadly I have come back to this album a half dozen times and it does absolutely nothing for me besides leave me incredibly bored.

I enjoy it, but it's not wild or out there, it's a nice singer songwriter album with a country tinge

some good songs

maybe frontloaded

Definitely frontloaded. Some of my favorite songs by her. But it does trail off.

Apple Music really wants me to listen to her partner’s music featuring her but good god it’s boring. (Maxim Ludwig)

I dunno. I'm kind of a sucker for a ballad with clanging chimes in the arrangement.