Tuesday, October 21, 2014

Angel Olsen - Burn Your Fire For No Witnesses

I like Burn Your Fire..., but it's a tricky record to pin down, skipping across bases as it does. It opens up with a classic era Liz Phair-styled strummer in "Unfucktheworld" and later calls back to a similar time, except via Sonic Youth, on "High & Wild"; elsewhere, Olsen stomps similarly alt-ily through the punky "Forgiven/Forgotten" and countryish modern blues cuts "Hi-Five" and "Stars" (the latter one of a couple that call SvE very much to mind - like van Etten, she has an arrestingly, raspily beautiful voice capable of a range of types of expressiveness) amidst a bunch of quieter moments. Saves the best for last, too, with the climactic, shockingly lovely "Windows".