"All Mirrors", Angel Olsen's 4th album, is the American singer's most stylistic work yet. Angel Olsen
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An indie singer/songwriter who delivers her vulnerable songs with a distinctive warble informed by vintage country, Angel Olsen's early, spare, acoustic songs grew increasingly lush and dramatic across her first several albums. The one-time Bonnie "Prince" Billy backup singer debuted with the reverb-heavy, solo indie folk of 2010's Strange Cacti, expanding to an alt-country power trio for her third album, 2014's Burn Your Fire for No Witness, her Billboard 200 debut. While maintaining an intimate character and a haunting sound reinforced by stylized echo, Olsen recorded her fifth long-player, 2019's All Mirrors, with a 14-piece orchestra.
Born and raised in St. Louis, Missouri, Olsen began performing in the city's coffee shops during her teenage years, soon branching out and tapping into a network of like-minded artists. She moved to Chicago in 2006, eventually working with California musician Emmett Kelly as part of his collective the Cairo Gang. Singing harmonies on Bonnie "Prince" Billy's 2010 album The Wonder Show of the World as well as its 2011 follow-up, Wolfroy Goes to Town, Olsen also released her own set of original acoustic-guitar songs, Strange Cacti, in 2010. The cassette was later reissued as a 12", both on Bathetic Records. Half Way Home, a spare album with understated arrangements and a homespun approach somewhere between '50s country crooners and her indie contemporaries, followed on the same label in 2012.
In early 2013, Olsen added drummer Josh Jaeger and bassist Stewart Bronaugh to flesh out her stripped-back sound, which added a brooding, garage rock appeal to her intimate music. Soon after forming the trio, Olsen returned to the studio with producer John Congleton to track sessions for her third album, Burn Your Fire for No Witness, which was released in early 2014 on Jagjaguwar. The record was critically well-received and spent a week at number 71 on the Billboard 200.
By then resettled in Asheville, North Carolina, Olsen expanded her sound still further on 2016's My Woman, touring as a six-piece to support its release. My Woman fared even better on the U.S. album chart, reaching number 47. Jagjaguwar followed it in 2017 with Phases, a compilation of Olsen rarities such as early demos and unreleased material from the My Woman sessions. In June 2019, Olsen contributed a featured spot on a track for Mark Ronson's collaborative Late Night Feelings, whose other guests included the likes of Alicia Keys, Miley Cyrus, and Lykke Li. Featuring production by Congleton and chamber orchestra arrangements by Jherek Bischoff and Ben Babbitt, her expansive fifth studio album, All Mirrors, arrived on Jagjaguwar in October 2019. ~ Fred Thomas & Marcy Donelson Similar artists
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Alternative & Indie - Released October 4, 2019 | Jagjaguwar
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Booklet
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Pitchfork: Best New Music
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Alternative & Indie - Released September 2, 2016 | Jagjaguwar
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Pitchfork: Best New Music
Following the acclaimed Burn Your Fire for No Witness and its expanded sound by two-and-a-half years, idiosyncratic singer/songwriter Angel Olsen broadens her palette even more on LP four, My Woman. Now with a long enough discography to note trends, she's made a steady transformation from tormented acoustic crooner to veritable indie rock songstress, if one still capable of the most intimate of deliveries. My Woman has the full range on display, including some electronics and extroversion not heard from her previously, as dictated by a loose story arc that follows the stages of a doomed relationship, all told from a woman's point of view. The album was recorded live to tape with a five-piece backing band at Vox Studios in Los Angeles.
In the ambivalent opener, "Intern," our heroine reluctantly decides to have one last go at love, foreshadowing with "Doesn’t matter who you are or what you do/Something in the world will make a fool of you." The song's atmospheric electronics, a first for Olsen, brace listeners for that expanded palette from the opening seconds. A couple of tracks later is the infectious "Shut Up Kiss Me." Also unlike any of her prior material, it's an aggressive retro rocker that captures unbridled passion and lust ("I ain't giving up tonight"). Co-dependency sets in on "Give It Up," and insecurity follows on "Not Gonna Kill You," both full-band, electric-guitar tunes. Arrangements get sparer as the subject matter gets more philosophical and despondent, such as on the artful "Sister," a dusty, nearly eight-minute epic that bargains with the future. Soon, "Those Were the Days" wonders "Will you ever know the same love that I know?" The breathy torch song is devoid of the singer's trademark heart-aching yodel, forgoing past country styling for low-key jazz-rock. In stark contrast to some of the other songs on the record, the closer, "Pops," is a solo piano dirge that bookends the album with its somber opener ("I'll be the thing that lives in the dream when it's gone").
While some tracks will surprise established fans, to say that My Woman is a departure or style swap for Olsen doesn't really take into account the album as a whole. The elements that are new here play out like a means to an end for a songwriter with a tale to tell, one chock-full of raw emotions. The songs stand just fine on their own, too, out of context. So, load up the playlists, but consider giving the album a proper front-to-back play through at least once for old time's sake. ~ Marcy Donelson
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Alternative & Indie - Released November 18, 2014 | Jagjaguwar
Distinctions
Pitchfork: Best New Music
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Alternative & Indie - Released February 18, 2014 | Jagjaguwar
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Pitchfork: Best New Music
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Alternative & Indie - Released November 10, 2017 | Jagjaguwar
One year after the release of her superb My Woman, Angel Olsen opens her treasure chest with this collection of B sides, demos and unpublished rarities. Twelve tracks dug up from seven years of recordings, among which we find Special, an original piece from the My Woman sessions, or even the luscious Fly On Your Wall, escaped from the Our First 100 Days project. Even if all this isn’t as invaluable as the "real" records from the Missouri native such as My Woman or Burn Your Fire For No Witness which came out in 2014, this true-false compilation remains an essential piece in the mega puzzle of Angel Olsen, goddess of indie folk mottled with grunge, Americana and vintage sounds… © MD/Qobuz
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Alternative & Indie - Released July 31, 2019 | Jagjaguwar
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American singer/songwriter Angel Olsen presents her fourth studio album, All Mirrors, follow-up to 2016's My Woman. This album sees Olsen explore the darker side of her musical personality, with the songs taking an eerier, heavier tone to reflect said themes. ~ Liam Martin
Pop/Rock - Released September 4, 2012 | Bathetic Records
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With Half Way Home, her first proper solo album following some lesser EP and cassette material, Chicago songwriter Angel Olsen constructs a landscape so starkly beautiful it's surprising she can hide any of the emotional intricacies of her songs in a sound so wide open. Olsen spent some time collaborating with Bonnie "Prince" Billy on tour and singing on his records as part of the Cairo Gang, and while relating her sad-souled Americana songs to those of Bonnie Billy's wouldn't be wrong, that lazy comparison doesn't really do justice to their complexity. Half Way Home is a collection of hidden moments and gracefully wounded sounds taking notes from decades of masterfully melancholic artists. The nostalgic bounce of "The Waiting" filters an upbeat indie folk arrangement through a heavy Roy Orbison lens, spotlighting the deep loneliness locked in what comes off as a sprightly mellow rocker. Angel flits between these shades of classic '50s icons like Orbison and Patsy Cline, echoes of Joni Mitchell's '70s free-spirit wandering, and the more modernized approach shared by her indie contemporaries. On tracks like "Can't Wait Until Tomorrow" and "Always Half Strange," she manages to run through all of these styles, building from a disaffected deadpan to a soaring, yodeling crescendo. Olsen keeps the arrangements minimal for much of the album, but the more fleshed-out numbers like "Lonely Universe" and "The Sky Opened Up" have touches of '70s Euro-folk, with understated percussion, haunted vocal delays, and mumbling bass bringing out touches of Fairport Convention or even the muted sorrow of Sibylle Baier. It's the understatement that makes Half Way Home such a heart-wrenching and gorgeous listen. By album closer "Tiniest Seed," Olsen has laid out a transfixing set of tunes that fold back into a softy crushing whole. Bare-bones harmonies, restrained instrumentation, and Olsen's brilliantly isolated musical persona result in an album to return to repeatedly, with new layers revealing themselves each time. ~ Fred Thomas
With Half Way Home, her first proper solo album following some lesser EP and cassette material, Chicago songwriter Angel Olsen constructs a landscape so starkly beautiful it's surprising she can hide any of the emotional intricacies of her songs in a sound so wide open. Olsen spent some time collaborating with Bonnie "Prince" Billy on tour and singing on his records as part of the Cairo Gang, and while relating her sad-souled Americana songs to those of Bonnie Billy's wouldn't be wrong, that lazy comparison doesn't really do justice to their complexity. Half Way Home is a collection of hidden moments and gracefully wounded sounds taking notes from decades of masterfully melancholic artists. The nostalgic bounce of "The Waiting" filters an upbeat indie folk arrangement through a heavy Roy Orbison lens, spotlighting the deep loneliness locked in what comes off as a sprightly mellow rocker. Angel flits between these shades of classic '50s icons like Orbison and Patsy Cline, echoes of Joni Mitchell's '70s free-spirit wandering, and the more modernized approach shared by her indie contemporaries. On tracks like "Can't Wait Until Tomorrow" and "Always Half Strange," she manages to run through all of these styles, building from a disaffected deadpan to a soaring, yodeling crescendo. Olsen keeps the arrangements minimal for much of the album, but the more fleshed-out numbers like "Lonely Universe" and "The Sky Opened Up" have touches of '70s Euro-folk, with understated percussion, haunted vocal delays, and mumbling bass bringing out touches of Fairport Convention or even the muted sorrow of Sibylle Baier. It's the understatement that makes Half Way Home such a heart-wrenching and gorgeous listen. By album closer "Tiniest Seed," Olsen has laid out a transfixing set of tunes that fold back into a softy crushing whole. Bare-bones harmonies, restrained instrumentation, and Olsen's brilliantly isolated musical persona result in an album to return to repeatedly, with new layers revealing themselves each time. ~ Fred Thomas
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Alternative & Indie - Released September 13, 2019 | Jagjaguwar
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Folk/Americana - Released September 20, 2016 | Bathetic Records
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With her original-material debut Strange Cacti, Angel Olsen presents a haunting six-track collection of indie folk tunes about heartbreak and life lessons. Featuring only voice and guitar, it was recorded with an almost inexplicably high level of reverb, especially given her compelling vocal delivery, which plays with breathing, vibrato, and versions of yodeling. The result has a far-away, ghostly quality to the point of sounding like an old record playing downstairs and carrying up through pipes. Also contributing to a certain nostalgic effect is the influence of early pop/rock present in Olsen's songwriting, with chords and dynamic melodies that particularly evoke early-'60s American girl groups like the Shirelles. With a vocal tone that is at once girlish and rich (think Zooey Deschanel), she sounds experienced but vulnerable -- at times exasperated -- delivering lyrics about newly acquired cynicism ("My friend, if it's alive it will do anything"). The same vocal qualities that make Olsen so interesting may alienate some, in the way that Morrissey and Joanna Newsom can. However, her ability to write expressive melodies and to deliver raw lyrics with clumsy sincerity and unusual technique gives Olsen the potential to be downright fascinating to others. [Strange Cacti was released in digital and LP formats.] ~ Marcy Donelson
With her original-material debut Strange Cacti, Angel Olsen presents a haunting six-track collection of indie folk tunes about heartbreak and life lessons. Featuring only voice and guitar, it was recorded with an almost inexplicably high level of reverb, especially given her compelling vocal delivery, which plays with breathing, vibrato, and versions of yodeling. The result has a far-away, ghostly quality to the point of sounding like an old record playing downstairs and carrying up through pipes. Also contributing to a certain nostalgic effect is the influence of early pop/rock present in Olsen's songwriting, with chords and dynamic melodies that particularly evoke early-'60s American girl groups like the Shirelles. With a vocal tone that is at once girlish and rich (think Zooey Deschanel), she sounds experienced but vulnerable -- at times exasperated -- delivering lyrics about newly acquired cynicism ("My friend, if it's alive it will do anything"). The same vocal qualities that make Olsen so interesting may alienate some, in the way that Morrissey and Joanna Newsom can. However, her ability to write expressive melodies and to deliver raw lyrics with clumsy sincerity and unusual technique gives Olsen the potential to be downright fascinating to others. [Strange Cacti was released in digital and LP formats.] ~ Marcy Donelson
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Alternative & Indie - Released September 22, 2017 | Jagjaguwar
Alternative & Indie - Released January 20, 2013 | SIXTEEN TAMBOURINES RECORDS
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Alternative & Indie - Released June 30, 2016 | Jagjaguwar
Electronic/Dance - Released August 14, 2012 | Bathetic Records
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Alternative & Indie - Released November 14, 2013 | Jagjaguwar
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Alternative & Indie - Released August 25, 2016 | Jagjaguwar
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Alternative & Indie - Released January 10, 2014 | Jagjaguwar
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Alternative & Indie - Released September 22, 2017 | Jagjaguwar
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Angel Olsen in the magazine
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Angel Olsen's style steps up
"All Mirrors", Angel Olsen's 4th album, is the American singer's most stylistic work yet. -
An angel passes...
The stunning, magical Angel Olsen, in the footsteps of Cat Power and Leonard Cohen ...
