The Missouri singer-songwriter returns with an absolute belter of an album, emanating dark, sultry soul at every turn.
Burn Your Fire For No Witness is the follow-up to Olsen’s 2012 debut Half Way Home. Although the album shifts around in mood and style without settling too distinctly on one genre, there are clear influences from bands who have blended the rough sounds of American country with gritty lyrics and husky vocals (see the Velvet Underground, Pixies and Giant Drag).
We are living inside of a dream
The album opens with the incredibly powerful ’Unfucktheworld’ which sounds like the kind of track that you’d hear in a film, playing on a dusty record player after some near-apocalyptic event. On ‘Forgiven/Forgotten’ Olsen wails “If there’s one thing I fear / It’s knowing you’re around / so close but not near” as relentless drums and guitar pound away in the background. Lead single ‘Hi-Five’ slows down the tempo and sounds like the kind of thing you might hear in a dark 1950s saloon in your nightmares. All of it is loaded, echoing atmosphere through and through.
It would be a little trite to say it’s like listening to an electrified Laura Marling after a few neat Scotches but it’s undeniable that there is a sharper edge to Olsen’s music than to anything which could be labelled as “folk” in the UK. ‘Dance Slow Decades’ is particularly pained and cements the idea that this is an album lost in nostalgia, memories and loss.
Olsen’s luscious voice draws you in on each track. She has the crooning, heartbroken vocal style of Dolly Parton, with a voice that wavers and breaks on almost every word. It’s impossible not to be intrigued by her, or to not get lost in her woes.
A superb album from an artist who is about to have a whole load more fans. We give Angel Olsen 9 out of 10.
Burn Your Fire No Witness is out on February 17th on Jagjaguwar.
Click here for Burn Your Fire For No Witness by Angel Olsen on iTunes.
