Hi-Five + Stars;
Angel Olsen is a new favourite of mine, which is probably pretty obvious
due to Burn Your Fire For No Witness being selected as my choice album for this month and I've lined up a
track from Burn Your Fire as an FLF for you
guys for this week.
Olsen's voice is enchanting and haunting all at once, singing
melancholic lines like "if all the trouble in my heart would only mend
/ I lost my dream I lost my reason all again". Even though most of the
album has this overarching melancholic theme to the tracks, Hi-Five has
to be one of the most up-beat and somehow cheerful songs written about being
alone, "are you lonely too? Hi-five! So am I!" Her songs
are raw, anarchic and full of power, this power is found in her voice and the
old-timey sophistication that sounds within it.
"I wish I had the voice of everything
/...I'll close my eyes so tightly for the world", Olsen sings
in Stars lamenting for deeper connections and hi-five's
from anyone who's feeling the loneliness that she's laid out throughout her
songs - the loneliness that she seems unafraid of, that pushes the listener to
be unafraid too. "To sing the animals to sing the earth / to sing the
stars into the universe / to sing it all back into something new / to sing for
life or myself and leaving you", she sings to come closer to the
loneliness that she feels. Her songs draw you in and take all of your
concentration away from everything that is happening around you, you miss most
of the stops on your train journey that you usually can't miss, all of the
roads that you pay such attention to when you're going for a run or walking home.
Her music is enchanting, and as much as she may at first seem rather melancholy
it becomes so much more than just listening to someone sing about loneliness
and more about taking in the realisation, and although you might already know
this, that you aren't the only one.
Olsen's album Burn Your Fire With No Words is a beautiful
album that you should take your time to listen to. Just for now, or if you want
to listen to them while you read, here is Hi-Five and Stars for
you to experience:
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