My Woman (album)

Recording

My Woman was recorded at Vox Studios in Los Angeles with producer Justin Raisen. The album was structured as sides of a vinyl record: "On one side, it’s as if you were having an upbeat day and wanted to try something a little hectic. But then, if you feel like things were slowing down and you wanted to be more reflective, then you listen to Side B." With regards to the album's themes, Olsen said that My Woman addresses "the complicated mess of being a woman."

Music

My Woman was Olsen's attempt to expand her musical style after 2014's Burn Your Fire for No Witness, with emphasis on avoiding being typecast as a lo-fi indie artist. With what she called a "plurality of voices," Olsen "wanted to use [her] vocal more and sing in the styles that [she] liked."

Compared to Olsen's previous album, My Woman contains a poppier, more diverse sound. Musical genres and musicians that influenced the album includes Fleetwood Mac, The Shirelles, Crazy Horse, 1970s glam rock, 1960s country pop and grunge. The album's opening track, "Intern," is a synthpop song that was considered to be a major departure from Olsen's previous works. Written as an experiment to "fuck with people," Olsen said of "Intern," "I have some friends who make synth music and I thought it might be fun to do something sarcastic." Critics have compared "Never Be Mine" to 1960s jangle pop and Spanish guitar music. The album's closer, "Pops," is a piano ballad.

Release

The first single from the album, "Intern," was released on June 1, 2016. A music video directed by Olsen was released the same day. On June 6, 2016, My Woman was announced. The second single from the album, "Shut Up Kiss Me," along with an accompanying Olsen directed music video, was released on June 29. The third single from the album, "Sister," along with an accompanying Olsen directed music video, was released on August 24.

Critical reception

My Woman received widespread acclaim from critics. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the album received an average score of 87 based on 30 professional reviews, which indicates "universal acclaim".

Pitchfork Media's Jenn Pelly gave the album a Best New Music designation, writing "Angel Olsen's latest is her best record yet, a bracing mix of sounds and styles congealing around songs of pain, sadness, and hope." Matt Williams of The A.V. Club gave the album a grade of A-, writing "When Olsen broke through with [..] Burn Your Fire For No Witness [..] she was quickly pigeonholed as the Sad Girl [..]. With My Woman, Olsen obliterates that narrow perception, raising the bar on her own multifaceted output and building new aspects of her artistic identity in the process." PopMatters' Colin Fitzgerald called My Woman "a new watermark for Olsen," that "elaborates on the disparate missions of both Half Way Home and Burn Your Fire For No Witness while reaching out into the unfamiliar spaces of dreamy synthpop and more hook-driven, pop-oriented songwriting." Fitzgerald continued, "most remarkable thing about My Woman is that it all coheres (far better than Burn Your Fire For No Witness, as great as it was, ever did) into an expansive, all-encompassing vision." Record Collector gave the album a mixed review, writing "My Woman is an odd, somewhat mismatched collection of good and then great songs that could have been more ghostly. When played simplest, or with the least traditional band structure buffeting them, they’re at their best – but it’s sadly not a constant."

In November 2016, UK record chain HMV named My Woman as their album of the year, calling it "an intuitively smart, warmly communicative and fearlessly generous record".

Track listing

All tracks written by Angel Olsen.

Personnel

The following people contributed to My Woman: