For a while, during years that seemed at the time to be post-vinyl, hanging on to the idea of Side A and Side B, of an artist and listener sharing a moment as the record was flipped, was an indulgence. As playlist culture, streaming services and mixtapes have grown in prominence, the broader concept of rigidly pacing a record has also become an endangered pastime: is it strictly necessary if the end result is destined to be deconstructed in an app?
Throughout her career, from the individualistic folk of her early albums to the inviting darkness at the heart of ‘Burn Your Fire For No Witness’, Angel Olsen hasn’t been one for redundant gestures. The division of her new record, the wonderful ‘My Woman’, into sides is a very deliberate move by an artist seeking to signpost her present and a possible future.
Much like Bruce Springsteen’s ‘Born To Run’, each side has its own personality. There are songs that act as counterpoints to one another - the brief structure of Intern, for example, is drawn out on the spectacular, seven-minute Sister much as Born To Run takes seeds sown on Thunder Road to their natural conclusion - but the overall impression is of a mind expanding further as the moments tick by.
The album’s second half is more experimental than the clipped, rock-focused songs at its beginning and only serves to reinforce the theory that Olsen’s songwriting exists in a constant state of flux and reinvention.
Her power as a vocalist, too, has never been more evident as she shapeshifts. She spits demands as a prickly garage-rock bandleader on Shut Up Kiss Me and drifts free from her moorings with barely a whisper on the nostalgic slow jam Those Were The Days, with her performance the beacon that draws us in and keeps us focused.
If this was a conversation it’d be an unfettered one, with Olsen shifting focus regularly and without concern for keeping things comfortable or neatly demarcated. ‘My Woman’ is about love and loss, perception and being direct when you might keep something to yourself. It’s by no means a straightforward album, but it’s also not content to leave its imagery half-explained or cloaked. “Heaven hits me when I see your face,” she sings on Never Be Mine. “I go blind every time.” Six songs later we’re in the midst of Woman, a song home to bare-bones talk that might just break you in half: “You can leave now if you want to, I'll still be around. This parade is almost over and I'm still your clown.”
The best records invite us to take something of them away with us. Like Springsteen imploring Wendy (or us) to walk with him out on a wire, Olsen wants us to participate in ‘My Woman’. Great voices can impart hurt, wisdom, humour, and so much more, with a subtle lilt or by bending a phrase to their will. Olsen knows that all too well, but here that virtuoso element of her music is buttressed by an ambitious, uncompromising slate of songs that are every bit as captivating.
Angel Olsen Upcoming Tour Dates are as follows:
Thu October 13 2016 - BRIGHTON Concorde 2
Fri October 14 2016 - MANCHESTER Academy
Sat October 15 2016 - GLASGOW SWG3
Sun October 16 2016 - BRISTOL Marble Factory
Mon October 17 2016 - LONDON KOKO
Thu November 03 2016 - LONDON Islington Assembly Hall
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