Angel Olsen

Add Date: August 30 

Artist: Angel Olsen 

Album: My Woman 

Label: Jagjaguwar 

Genre: Rock, folk, psychedelia 

Comments: Three months ago, Angel Olsen posted a mysterious, originally untitled video clip online, showing her singing atop a synth-laced backdrop while wearing a glittery silver wig. The music turned out to be part of the song "Intern", while the wig made a subsequent appearance in the video for summertime single "Shut Up Kiss Me". Seemingly, Olsen was revealing a new musical persona in advance of releasing her third full-length record this fall.

The way that Olsen teased the record may have been nothing more than an artist letting loose and having fun, but now that we have the album, it seems rather symbolic. If her 2014 Jagjaguwar debut Burn Your Fire for No Witness was the breakthrough record, then My Woman boasts the sound of an artist truly finding her own powerful, focused, and captivating voice. Merging the haunting folk of her early material -- including her first LP, 2011's Strange Cacti -- with the grungy alt-country and psych-washed dream rock of Burn Your Fire, Olsen emerges with one of the most essential records of the current decade.

"Intern" is, fittingly, the introduction to the album, with its atmospheric pop showcasing Olsen's vocals much in the same way that the (stylistically very different) "unfucktheworld" did on Burn Your Fire. From there we dive into three-quarters of an hour of glorious country-rock and psychedelic folk that exceeds even the impossibly high expectations that I had for this record. (Burn Your Fire was No. 4 on my Top 10 list two years ago.) The urgent alt-rock of the aforementioned "Shut Up Kiss Me" provides the album's true standout moment, but there's scarcely any letdown throughout.

Early critical returns express similar sentiments; two days before its release, it already sits right behind Mitski's excellent Puberty 2 -- along with records from artists named "Beyoncé", "Frank Ocean", and "Radiohead" -- in Album of the Year's aggregate scoring system for 2016. After a few listens, I'd expect nothing less for Olsen's utterly spectacular My Woman. 

Recommended Tracks: 3, 2, 5, 1, 7, 8 

DNP: none