Graham Reid | | <1 min read
When Elsewhere discovered this woman's previous album, her second, Burn Your Fire For No Witness in early 2014 we were mightily impressed by her ability to roam across genres from alt.country-influenced material to gritty rock, mainstream pop to acoustic ballads.
What was also a thread was the classic pop structures and influences from the late Fifties/early Sixties . . . and on this new album, which traverses similar breadth, you can't help but feel the influence of Phil Spector on Never Be Mine, albeit dialed right back from the wall of sound.
And again on Shut Up Kiss Me.
Where she was once part of the Bonny Prince Billie set (and along that axis) here she delivers a lo-fi version of pop-rock which alludes to grunge-gone-Brill (Give It Up) and sparse balladry (Heart Shaped Face) and exotically shimmering and whispery bedroom pop (Those Were the Days).
And she fairly aches out of the speakers on the seven minute-plus Woman before closing with the vaguely European-sounding piano-based ballad Pops which increases in intensity then cuts right back again. Quite a piece of work which crams a lot into fewer than five minutes.
Angel Olsen returns to New Zealand later this year (see dates below) and with two interesting and different albums to draw from (and her seldom heard debut) she's got a well of diverse material to deliver.
Should be well worth seeing.
ANGEL OLSEN NEW ZEALAND DATES
SanFran, Wellington, Tuesday December 13
Kinga Arms, Auckland, Wednesday December 14
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