#6 - Burn Your Fire For No Witness - 2014 Album Listening Cl - Music

Dingerbell

Gender: Male

Age: 28

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Burn Your Fire For No Witness by Angel Olsen

This was one of the first albums I heard this year, and is still my favourite. The album is simply brilliantly diverse. Its a lo-fi indie rock album in spirit, but there are clear influences from other genres- such as folk in White Fire (which is possibly the album's stand-out track) and Enemy, blues in Hi-Five and punk rock in Forgiven/Forgotten. However, the most obvious and interesting of Olsen's influences is psychedelic rock, with quite a few of the songs paying homage to the genre- most notably in Lights Out. These psychedelic sounds give the album a wonderfully thick and atmospheric vibe, which for a lo-fi album is a pretty notable.

The vocals are also a major plus for this album. Olsen's vocals are mainly really relaxed, but she often shows her potential for having a very powerful voice when its required.

This album is due to be released tomorrow- which is why I have waited a while before posting about this album- which is probably why this album has slipped in under the radar a bit. Hopefully this will get a bit of publicity from (deservedly) being given Best New Music from Pitchfork, as well as many other positive reviews elsewhere.

Guest

Listening now. Fuck me, 'White Fire' sounds like Leonard Cohen. Not in a good or bad way particularly, just in an instantly noticeable and undeniable way. Like, the cadence is just Cohen's. Anyway, I've not kept up with Olsen - the odd song here or there has caught my attention, nothing that I've found really memorable to be honest. Must say that this record initially seems quite the departure from what I've heard previously; not sure if this has been a gradual change or...? But whatever, I'm thoroughly enjoying this. Will give it a few listens and come back with more concrete thoughts.

Guest

OK, I'm really struggling to see anything remotely psychedelic about this album. That's probably a good thing, because there's more than enough psych-rock revival shit going around at the moment, but I'm just genuinely interested in hearing what the OP thinks is psychedelic about this. 'Lights Out' was given as an example of the "obvious" psych-rock influence, but one bluesy solo with a subtle wah effect doesn't suddenly make a fairly straight ahead rock song psychedelic. If anything, that song struck me as more country rock than psych-rock. I think the whole album is really cool, based on first listen alone it's my favourite of the ALC picks so far, and there are some fantastic moments. 'Stars' evokes some sort of Roy Orbison cool, with its soaring guitars, droning organs and anthemic Spector drums; 'Forgiven/Forgotten' sounds like Polly Harvey covering Arcade Fire, in the best way possible; 'Enemy' is beautiful and heartbreaking in its directness ("Am I the ugly one? It's easy to see past all of the kindness that you've offered me; it doesn't last"). Her voice is absolutely gorgeous, and the production is handled very tastefully, switching between acoustic guitars drowned in cavernous reverb and just-scuzzy-enough proto-punk rockers. Lyrically she does occasionally fall into cliche ('Dance Slow Decades', whilst lovely sounding, feels like it's going over very well trodden ground), but on the whole she has a direct lyrical style that works, and I hear themes of ploughing ahead through tough times all over the record, just vague enough to leave it open to interpretation (and, most importantly, to allow her fantastic voice to take center stage), whilst touching on a topic to which everyone can relate. So yeah, it's great and I'll be coming back to it a lot. But psychedelic? Really?

Dingerbell

Gender: Male

Age: 28

I wouldn't say that the album is anything like psychedelic rock, or even that the genre is prominent in the songs, but I would say that there are a few examples where I can certainly hear the influence.

The psychedelic stuff I hear comes mainly with the effects and tones in the lead guitar, such as in Forgiven/Forgotten, Hi-Five, Lights Out and Stars, as well as the outro of High & Wild (reminds me a lot of the Velvet Underground) and a few of the vocal effects, such as on Forgiven/Forgotten. If you don't hear it, though, it doesn't particularly bother me; its just my interpretation of the album.

Guest

Dingerbell wrote:

I wouldn't say that the album is anything like psychedelic rock, or even that the genre is prominent in the songs, but I would say that there are a few examples where I can certainly hear the influence.

The psychedelic stuff I hear comes mainly with the effects and tones in the lead guitar, such as in Forgiven/Forgotten, Hi-Five, Lights Out and Stars, as well as the outro of High & Wild (reminds me a lot of the Velvet Underground) and a few of the vocal effects, such as on Forgiven/Forgotten. If you don't hear it, though, it doesn't particularly bother me; its just my interpretation of the album.

Eh, that's fair enough. I wasn't trying to start an argument or be deliberately contrary, I was just wondering because I went into the record expecting to hear psych-rock influences (based on your post) and found none. I wasn't disappointed by the record at all, I just wanted clarification on where you thought the psych-rock influences were most prominent. You've probably heard the album quite a few times, whereas I've only heard it once (well, I went back and relistened to specific songs that caught my ear, but only once through), so you're obviously more familiar with it than I am. It just confused me a bit listening to the record and waiting for these psych-rock homages that never appeared. Still, a lovely album. Nice choice.

undefined

Still my favorite album of the year so far. I've been a huge Angel Olsen fan since Strange Cacti, and Half Way Home was in my top 5 for 2012. Burn Your Fire is riddled with elements of her previous work, but is still very much a departure from her usual style of songwriting and musicianship (to varying degrees.) The album is diverse, showcasing both the lo-fi elements of Strange Cacti and the more clean production of Half Way home (sometimes both within a single song), but as I already commented on the album, she's going in more than one new direction here, and musically she's crafting something wonderful in each of these new directions; (hearing something like "Forgiven/Forgotten" after having played the shit out of her earlier two works comes as a welcome surprise.) The only negative comment I could make about this album is that (occasionally) lyrically it almost feels like she's trying to imitate the powerful the kind of abstract expression (e.g. "Safe In the Womb") and/or direct emotive intimacy (e.g. "Lonely Universe") that has defined her career up to this point, but these moments of [recycled lyricism?] are few, and really her songwriting is just as powerful as ever for the majority of the album, despite the focus being more on her changes in sound, with the lyrics perhaps being less of a focal point than they have been on previous releases. Seeing her live March 3rd. Cannot wait

Necharsian

Best Ever User

Gender: Male

Hm just finished listening to it. I had heard a couple songs off it before and it didnt really interest me, but i said i was going to listen to all of them in this club so thats just what i did. And yeah i donno I didnt mind it but it didnt blow me away. Might listen to it again sometime but for now its just ok to me

and now for the ever important ranking

1. Have a Nice Life - The Unnatural World
2. Alcest - Shelter
3. An Ant and An Atom - You Are No One
4. Angel Olsen - Burn Your Fire For No Witness
5. Actress - Ghettovile
6. Mike Jourgensen - Moodeity

19loveless91

mag. druž. inf

Liked this one a lot. Forgiven/Forgotten and White Fire were my favourites I think. Will give it a few more listens and come back with more thoughts

RockyRaccoon

Is it solipsistic in here or is it just me?

Gender: Male

Age: 34

Location: Maryland

Moderator

Loved it, beautiful album all around. Lyrically it was fantastic too. And lethal, you're totally right, "White Fire" sounds exactly like a Leonard Cohen song
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Guest

It was very good. I was half asleep when I listened to it, so I'll have to give it another listen before giving a more thoughtful critique.