Angel Olsen

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.

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.