One winter morning I went round to my new friend’s flat
Four of us: ten hours of beers and records
Afternoon and already dark
I lay upside down on the couch
Asked her for the song she’d most like to share
This is it.
In life there are moments
you want to remember.
American singer-songwriter Angel Olsen is an artist I heard of last year through her 2012 release Half Way Home. New album Burn Your Fire For No Witness is one of the best records I’ve stumbled on in a long time: it begs to be listened to all the way through and is wholly addictive. I’ve listened to it over and over again – it makes you want to even though you know you shouldn’t because eventually you might ruin it for yourself.
Olsen’s voice goes from honeyed to wild, fierce and rasping, her lyrics project straightforward truths, her musicianship is crafted and poignant. Like all great music emotions – heartache, loneliness, desperation, anger and serenity – ring right through it.
Burn Your Fire For No Witness a subtly dazzling collection of songs with a rare and beautiful kind of timelessness. Befriend them.
Listen to the album now via NPR, it will be released through Jagjaguwar.
This week I rediscovered some slightly cumbersome Sennheiser headphones I bought about ten years ago and was too self conscious to wear on the street plugged in to my ‘portable CD player’. The quality, perhaps therefore due to restricted use, is still great and the first thing I listened to on them was the new Low album, The Invisible Way.
It’s the tenth album in twenty years from the Sub Pop signed Low, who hail from a place called Duluth Minnesota. An emotional, often poignant journey based on writing and recording strong, beautiful songs I’d possibly say it trumps all of the others. We’ll see how it stands the test of time.
‘So Blue’ is absolutely beautiful – listen!
The previously released ‘Just Make it Stop’ and closer ‘On Our Knees’ are more of my favourites.
You have time, as soon as you have time in fact.
For a sporadic history read an interview from 1996 here, a site which has lots more random press on the band.
It was also the year that Low’s SXSW performance was overpowered by a neighbouring hardcore band, Ramones fans rioted in Argentina after queueing overnight for free tickets falsely promised by Coke a Cola and David Bowie’s ‘Telling Lies’ was the first song to be released as a digital single.
As I only feature music I generally like I’ve decided rating releases is pointless. It has a mighty Play a Song For Me seal of approval!
The Loomis Fargo Gang hail from Virginia and I know little about them other than their strapline is strapline is ‘music for a lovely lonely day’. They’ve suggested a track from Australian instrumental experimentalists Hungry Ghosts, ‘Remember What It Was Like to Float’….
The story: One night I got really drunk, and tried to jump in my neighbor’s pool from my roof. I ended up landing in the shallow end and hitting my head. I passed out and my friends had to drag me out of the pool and resuscitate me. This is the song that was playing when it happened.
The album: ‘Alone Alone’ released in 2000.
Check it out for… Swooping, fragile instrumentals which will tug at your heartstrings. A watch out – there’s a UK band of the same name, make sure you are in the right place!
Listen to ‘Tootsie in the Breeze’, a track from The Loomis Fargo Gang’s forthcoming album, The Prettiest Shade of Blue, which will be released on 20th March.
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