Angel Olsen

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