Heartbreaking Bravery

Angel Olsen has long had a half-hidden penchant for getting dark and vicious. That penchant was only hinted at with her excellent 2012 record Half Way Home but seems to be on full display for her upcoming John Congleton-produced Burn Your Fire for No Witness.  The exquisitely-titled LP is said to be her fiercest work to date and the just-released “Forgiven/Forgotten” seems to support those claims in full. “Forgiven/Forgotten” has arrived today via a soundcloud stream and an official music video. In the music video, Olsen is featured very minimally and instead the focus lays on movement; the video’s entirety is occupied by images outside of a moving vehicle window, underscoring her artistic transition quite nicely. As for the song itself, it’s a hard-charging number that capitalizes on the Chicago-based artist’s unique sense of melody and falls somewhere between the 90’s indie revivalism of Swearin’ and the current crop of aggressive shoegaze. Everything here works to perfection, with the intimately lensed video and bold song playing off of each other perfectly. Angel Olsen’s come tearing out of the gate for Burn Your Fire for No Witness with an absolute stunner that’s sure to elevate the anticipation for that record’s release through Jagjaguwar on February 18th considerably. You can pre-order the record now and watch the video below.