Angel Olsen - My Woman

Football commentators of the world would have a field day with ‘My Woman’: it’s quite deliberately an album of two halves. Sonically, there’s a vast difference between the punchy, decisive first, and the stripped-back wandering flip-side. And lyrically, Angel Olsen is entirely concerned with opposites, too. Running away, or facing things head on; falling senselessly in love or bolting up the guarded emotive hatches at all costs – they’re all dilemmas explored on ‘My Woman’.

Despite the uncertain, vague and fast-shifting idealism fuelling many of her lyrics, ‘My Woman’ often shows her at her boldest and most concentrated.

Though the momentum does slow, there’s still a playfulness; despite her lyrical insistence otherwise. “I’ve been thinking about your smile,” waltzes the smitten sort-of title track ‘Woman’ – rasps of trumpet sounding out with a sideways smirk behind her. Contradictory, complex, and worthy of endless re-listens, Angel Olsen has crafted her most compelling record to date.