I lost my dream
I lost my reason all again
Somewhere in the dark, Angel Olsen created these songs about the ghosts of wasted time, forgiveness, and a lonesome land shoulder-to-shoulder without a guarantee in sight. “Unfucktheworld” opens the demolition with an honest cry: “I am the only one now / You may not be around.” Shit, haven’t we all felt like that?
This is a tremendous effort, and the real stabs in the heart are “White Fire,” an almost seven minute slow burner that torches loneliness and malaise with stark brutality, and the closing “Windows,” which sounds so vulnerable that you must wonder how far Olsen had to fall to sing like that.
“Are you blind? Are you dead?” she sings.
Perhaps we’ll never know.