BEA's Year-End List #5: Burn Your Fire for No Witness

Anonymous · 2015-02-06T12:04:11-05:00

Burn Your Fire For No Witness by Angel Olsen Although some preferred her debut album, Angel Olsen's sophomore stint into lo-fi indie rock generated enough enthusiasm to climb to #5 in our rankings. In addition to the quotes below, you can check out the Dingerbell's thread for the 2014 album listening club. Save for the title, the first track on "Burn Your Fire For No Witness" seems to suggest that Olsen is finding a balance between the lo-fi stylings of her debut EP "Strange Cacti" and the more clean sounding production of "Half Way Home". This of course leaves the listener totally unprepared for noisy, drum-heavy, drowned out vocals of "Forgiven/Forgotten", which sounds almost entirely unlike anything Olsen has recorded previously (much like... well, the entire album). "Burn Your Fire" is undoubtedly more stylistically varied that either Strange Cacti or Half Way Home; and while it does exhibit songs that would feel at home on either album, "Burn Your Fire" is a multi-directional departure from her usual sparse and focused acoustics; this isn't to say that Burn Your Fire lacks focus, but rather that it exhibits a stylistic versatility at which Olsen has hinted in the past, but which far exceeds any expectations we have held in regards to the extent of that versatility. There are still threads (particularly in the latter half of the album) that hold the album together such that it still feels like an Angel Olsen album (mainly for her very personal, expressive lyricism and unique vocal delivery, such as we have seen before), but as a whole, represents an Angel Olsen who is rapidly evolving as a songwriter and a musician in several directions at once, and who is succeeding massively at virtually every front Dead and yet still alive... Like Leonard Cohen Sometimes a person’s voice fits absolutely perfectly with the music they’re playing, and that’s the case with Angel Olsen and her new album “Burn Your Fire For No Witness”. It starts off kind of deceivingly, with a very lo-fi folk sound, but it transitions into a very full, well-produced sound, which I feel like signals a transition for Olsen from a lo-fi musician to a different, more rock-oriented musician. Lyrically, Olsen is very strong here, and lyrics are the main focus of a lot of the songs, just by the nature of the way they’re set up. A special highlight is the song “White Fire”, which sounds almost exactly like something Leonard Cohen would have written, the song will entrance you and you’ll never want it to end. The whole album is very impressive, the music is great, the instrumentation is meticulously placed, never too much and rarely too little. It’s a great album. gets better with every listen. 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.

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SquishypuffDave Profile

Originally gave this a couple of listens and didn't make much of an impression on me, but I might revisit again.

Saoirse

Ive given this a couple listens and it seems like something that I would like a lot... but I just can't get into it at all. I seem to get more bored and turned off with each listen, even with all the activity during each song. Maybe Im just missing something, but I donno if finding that missing link is going to make the album any more enjoyable.

HoldenM To Pedantically Split Infinitives Profile

I'm in love with this album, and Angel Olsen as a result. #2 for me. Just... so emotionally raw without being overbearing or overly indulgent. So perfect on so many levels.
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Wombi

It's nice enough, I guess. Did not expect to see it here though. But I forgot to vote so I can't complain.

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