Angel Olsen - My Woman

My Woman is the third studio album by American indie rock singer songwriter Angel Olsen, released in September 2016 via Jagjaguwar Records.

Angel Olsen is an American folk and indie rock singer and guitarist who has recorded and toured as a backing singer with Bonnie "Prince" Billy and the Cairo Gang, before embarking on her own career. Angel Olsen began singing as a young girl in St. Louis. Her self-released debut EP, Strange Cacti, belied both that early period of discovery and her Midwestern roots. Olsen then went further on Half Way Home, her first full-length album, which mined essential themes while showcasing a more developed voice. Olsen dared to be more personal. 

Where Angel Olsen’s 2014 breakthrough Burn Your Fire For No Witness flickered with lo-fi fervor, her latest, My Woman, oozes unhurried glamour and moments of sweeping grandeur. Olsen shifts between genres with graceful precision, breaking down the limiting (and, sometimes, sexist) critiques that have dogged her career. On My Woman, Olsen asserts her control, proving that she can be whoever she wants to be.

My Woman takes things to another level. After an exhausting period of touring (she describes the experience as like having a “birthday party” every night) Olsen returned home to Asheville, North Carolina to recharge and get to know herself again. What she’s returned with is even more powerful. While still often broken hearted, it’s filled with attitude. Olsen is a soft hard-nut.

The album itself, she says, is split in two. An A and B side. It’s not quite as straight-forward as the fiery stuff up front, the folky stuff further back, but close.

It opens with cosmic ballad “Intern”, which bleeds into the tragic sweetness of “Never Be Mine”. The grungy “Shut Up Kiss Me” is the closest thing here to an anthem. The video, in fact – Olsen in a tinsel wig riding around on roller skates – captures her infectious, badass outlook perfectly. “Not Gonna Kill You” is a ‘70s psychedelic glam-rock freakout.

The pace does slow for part two but it’s no less engaging. The highlight is “Sister”, A shimmering eight-minute distorted country-folk number that builds to a teary Fleetwood Mac crescendo complete with sprawling guitar solo.

As with her previous efforts Olsen’s unique vocal steals the show, but this is the singer opening up all the other parts to her personality. The more we see, the more there is to love.

Check out the tracks: Sister; Shut Up Kiss Me; Intern and Not Gonna Kill You.

This LP on 180 gram vinyl housed in a gatefold sleeve with digital download is pressed in the USA.