Indie pop-rock icon Angel Olsen takes a hiatus from her tormented tales of love and desperation for a five track EP of 80s tunes she’s heard in the grocery store. Nothing less, nothing more.
The events of the past two years have led many artists to the carthasis of deeply personal, analytic songwriting. Where there is pain, it seems obvious to channel it into our weapon of choice. Angel Olsen flips this idea on its head and gives herself the space to “laugh and have fun and be a little less serious about the recording process in general” she says in a statement accompanying the release.
Olsen is by no means the first indie star to temper a pop song into a brooding ballad, and talented as she is, the project doesn’t give the listener a take we haven’t heard before. “Safety Dance” bares a close resemblence to Lorde‘s sombre 2013 cover of Tears for Fears “Everybody Wants To Rule The World”, a villainous battle track. Similarly, opening track “Gloria” seems to switch to the minor key and call it a day.
Authenticity is found only in the subtleties of Olsen’s vocal delivery, transforming lyrics long overlooked into something far more cerebral. She finds her voice in track 2, Billy Idol’s “Eyes Without A Face”, delivering her dream-like alto we know and love with more affection than the later tracks. Regrettably, we miss this same quality in final track “Forever Young”. The Alphaville anthem falls flat in its battle between strings and analogue synthesizers, washing out the lyrics half sung/half cried around firepits for decades.
Angel Olsen is a master of interpersonal chaos and angst, but she makes no mistake in letting us know Aisles is nothing of the sort. Though we miss the splintering desperation of her lyricism, the singer-songwriter returns less tortured in a time where we could all take a leaf out of her book and give ourselves a break.
Rating: 4/10
Nuwanda Reviews 