Loved the last album and also extremely ready for this new direction
― sctttnnnt (pgwp), Wednesday, 30 March 2022 01:37 (two years ago) link
oh this sounds amazing
― papal hotwife (milo z), Wednesday, 30 March 2022 01:55 (two years ago) link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8QXDHL_c65M
lovely
― ufo, Thursday, 19 May 2022 12:50 (two years ago) link
well, it certainly embraces a minimal feeling
― imago, Thursday, 19 May 2022 13:06 (two years ago) link
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
― imago, Thursday, 19 May 2022 13:08 (two years ago) link
i love this album
― ufo, Thursday, 2 June 2022 23:55 (two years ago) link
I think I do too. Wasn't expecting to.
― Ⓓⓡ. (Johnny Fever), Friday, 3 June 2022 04:39 (two years ago) link
Listening now.
― Malevolent Arugula (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Friday, 3 June 2022 10:03 (two years ago) link
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.
― AlXTC from Paris, Friday, 3 June 2022 10:54 (two years ago) link
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.
― sctttnnnt (pgwp), Friday, 3 June 2022 17:32 (two years ago) link
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.
― Ⓓⓡ. (Johnny Fever), Friday, 3 June 2022 18:13 (two years ago) link
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
― ufo, Friday, 3 June 2022 22:32 (two years ago) link
this album is great but you're all so wrong about all mirrors
― flamenco drop (BradNelson), Friday, 3 June 2022 22:33 (two years ago) link
This is a Lee Hazlewood record, so probably my favorite of hers so far. I, too, object to the All Mirrors backlash!
― Doctor Madame Frances Experimento, LLC", Friday, 3 June 2022 23:25 (two years ago) link
All Mirrors is great. Her anti-vax comments put me off her last two years' output, but this is great, too. Lee Hazlewood, otm.
― sleep, that's where I'm the cousin of death (PBKR), Saturday, 4 June 2022 01:57 (two years ago) link
lol i had no idea about that, depressing
― ufo, Saturday, 4 June 2022 02:10 (two years ago) link
I guess it was comment, not comments, tbf.
― sleep, that's where I'm the cousin of death (PBKR), Saturday, 4 June 2022 02:15 (two years ago) link
apparently she backed down too? but lol
― ufo, Saturday, 4 June 2022 02:22 (two years ago) link
Didn't she just share one hippie COVID video early on and then said she got fooled or something?
― papal hotwife (milo z), Saturday, 4 June 2022 02:24 (two years ago) link
(said she got fooled in the worst possible way - "got played, playa" IIRC)
― AlXTC from Paris, Monday, 6 June 2022 03:09 (two years ago) link
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.
― sctttnnnt (pgwp), Tuesday, 7 June 2022 23:39 (two years ago) link
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.
― Malevolent Arugula (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Tuesday, 7 June 2022 23:49 (two years ago) link
When people talk about country in the indie realm, they aren't talking about Miranda Lambert or Charlie Worsham and you know that.
― Ⓓⓡ. (Johnny Fever), Wednesday, 8 June 2022 00:00 (two years ago) link
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.
― Ⓓⓡ. (Johnny Fever), Wednesday, 8 June 2022 00:02 (two years ago) link
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.
― Malevolent Arugula (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Wednesday, 8 June 2022 00:06 (two years ago) link
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.
― Malevolent Arugula (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Wednesday, 8 June 2022 00:08 (two years ago) link
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.
― Ⓓⓡ. (Johnny Fever), Wednesday, 8 June 2022 00:08 (two years ago) link
xp the Nicole Atkins record has horn sections and behind the beat grooves all over it. I was being PRECISE.
― Ⓓⓡ. (Johnny Fever), Wednesday, 8 June 2022 00:10 (two years ago) link
I did not. I'm trying to define what posters mean by "country." The fuck are you so upset about?
― Malevolent Arugula (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Wednesday, 8 June 2022 00:10 (two years ago) link
Get down from the cross.
Who the fuck are you talking to here?
― Malevolent Arugula (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Wednesday, 8 June 2022 00:12 (two years ago) link
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.
― Ⓓⓡ. (Johnny Fever), Wednesday, 8 June 2022 00:22 (two years ago) link
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
― ufo, Wednesday, 8 June 2022 00:26 (two years ago) link
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.
― Ⓓⓡ. (Johnny Fever), Wednesday, 8 June 2022 00:29 (two years ago) link
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?
― Malevolent Arugula (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Wednesday, 8 June 2022 00:29 (two years ago) link
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."
― Malevolent Arugula (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Wednesday, 8 June 2022 00:32 (two years ago) link
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
― ufo, Wednesday, 8 June 2022 00:33 (two years ago) link
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.
― sctttnnnt (pgwp), Wednesday, 8 June 2022 00:43 (two years ago) link
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.
― Ⓓⓡ. (Johnny Fever), Wednesday, 8 June 2022 00:45 (two years ago) link
Good post, pgwp, thanks.
― Malevolent Arugula (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Wednesday, 8 June 2022 00:55 (two years ago) link
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."
― Malevolent Arugula (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Wednesday, 8 June 2022 00:58 (two years ago) link
and Olsen sounds...rather precise and on-the-nose to me, which is description not criticism.
― Malevolent Arugula (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Wednesday, 8 June 2022 00:59 (two years ago) link
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.
― Ⓓⓡ. (Johnny Fever), Wednesday, 8 June 2022 01:00 (two years ago) link
"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.
― Ⓓⓡ. (Johnny Fever), Wednesday, 8 June 2022 01:04 (two years ago) link
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.
― Malevolent Arugula (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Wednesday, 8 June 2022 01:05 (two years ago) link
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.
― Ⓓⓡ. (Johnny Fever), Wednesday, 8 June 2022 01:07 (two years ago) link
This album sounds much closer to Twin Peaks Roadhouse than any country/Americana.
― Chris L, Wednesday, 8 June 2022 05:59 (two years ago) link
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.
― sleep, that's where I'm the cousin of death (PBKR), Wednesday, 8 June 2022 11:26 (two years ago) link
yes, a pleasant surprise indeed
Jonathan Wilson is a good producer
― corrs unplugged, Wednesday, 8 June 2022 11:39 (two years ago) link
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
― corrs unplugged, Wednesday, 8 June 2022 11:40 (two years ago) link