Angel Olsen – Burn Your Fire for No Witness – Album Reviews

By No More Workhorse on February 26, 2014 • ( 1 Comment )

‘i quit my dreaming the moment that i found you.

I started dancing, just to be around you’.

Is the opening couplet on the new album from Angel Olsen ‘Burn your fire for no Witness’, her fourth album. Unfucktheworld is a typical acoustic number, and another lost and lonely love song, of which you’ll find many on this album. Forgiven/ Forgotten is the next track up, which is an upbeat, guitar driven number, that has screeching guitars and pounding drums, which is more of a surprise. It is the introduction of these very successful fast tracks, that are reminiscent of the Breeders among others, that make this album a cut about the average.

Tracks such as ‘Hi-Five’ set out the simple mantra of loneliness and desolation.

‘Are you lonely too, Hi-five, so am I,

All of your life stuck inside’.

There’s no mistaking the common thread on this album, loneliness, but the use of loud, brash songs to get across these sad emotions is quite unusual. There are many slow and quite beautiful songs, but the fast ones really make you sit up and take notice, and make this an album you can’t ignore. It’s not something that will waft along in the background, but something that demands attention. ‘I’m neither innocent or wise when you look me in the eyes’ she sings on ‘High & Wild’ and it’s a line worthy of Johnny Cash. This is no perfect and innocent young woman, you can tell she’s lived!

The arrangements are simple enough, and it’s the standard collection of instruments, with drums, guitar and occasional piano. Her own voice is central to everything, and her deep and raw sound is vulnerable and filled with emotion! It’s an album equal to any artist that is producing soft souled folk/ rock today, and if you’re a fan of either, it’s worth checking out.

Fri 06/06/14 – Angel Olsen – Whelans – €15.50

Burn Your Fire for no Witness was released on the 18-02-14 by Jagjaguwar