Angel Olsen - Electric Ballroom, London 25/09/14

29 September 2014, 09:00 | Written by Ed Nash

(Live)

(Angel Olsen)

Angel Olsen’s live reputation gives fair warning of two things, namely this seemingly demure but precocious singer has a piercing Basilisk stare and when she unleashes that feral voice, an intoxicating purr that melds Patsy Cline with Grace Slick, she can silence even the rowdiest of audiences. Whilst tonight the stare is in full working order - a heckler receives its full effect - the silence from the audience isn’t. Perhaps they’ve heard “Forgiven/Forgotten” and are expecting an evening of similarly raucous music, rather than the typical slow burn of her spellbinding, delicate songs. Tonight she proves to be a spine-tingling live proposition, though not the loudest and therein lies the problem for the uninitiated.

Starting with “Unfucktheworld” from the majestic Burn Your Fire For No Witness, the words, tune and voice work together beautifully to create a glacial cool, building to the refrain “I am the only one” and ending with just her voice and a smattering of drums. “Free” from Halfway Home and Strange Cacti’s “Drunk With Dreams” continue the sedate tone, showing there’s nothing straightforward about her influences, at times she sounds like a female Buddy Holly. The instruments work around her vocal as accompaniments rather than taking the starring roles, which belong to the singer, the songs and her voice.

It’s not until the fourth song that Olsen addresses the audience with “It’s good to be back”, but she doesn’t sound wholly convincing, perhaps sensing the restlessness of the more unruly elements of the crowd. So the pace duly picks up with the lustrous “Stars”, a maelstrom of staccato guitar and drums and as always there’s a tremendous sadness to the words, with the stage fittingly bathed in blue ”You could change my mind with just a smile”.

Then there’s a moment that whilst is not up there with Bob Dylan being called “Judas”, certainly ramps up the artist/audience tension. With the band taking their time to start a song someone shouts “Hurry up!” which prompts Olsen to issue the withering riposte “Do you want to get up here and sing the song for me?” Admirably she sticks to her slo-mo guns and “May As Well“ is out of this world, a Hawaiian lullaby on which her voice sounds as unbelievably vulnerable and mellifluous as the words. “I've tried my best to keep you smiling love/Maybe it's been all in vain/But I would try a million times my dear/Tell me would you do the same?” Which ironically tells the story of the night.

The chatterers seem placated with “Forgiven/Forgotten”, which is out of kilter with the rest of the set, but perhaps she’s just proving she can knock out a straightforward pop song if the mood takes her. The one misstep is an unnecessary cover of Fleetwood Mac’s “Dreams”, Olsen has enough wonderful songs of her own, so why dip into Stevie Nicks songbook?

“High And Wild” is the evening’s highlight. Like a modern day Emily Dickinson its sparse lyrics say everything you need to know about heartbreak with the minimum of fuss. “Well this would all be so much easier if I had nothing more to say/Oh, if only, if only, I had nothing more to say.” It’s a story of unfinished business writ large. She closes with a solo rendition of the delicate “Iota”, which has words that rank with the saddest you’ll ever hear “If only all our dreams were coming true/Maybe there'd be some time for me and you”. Then she’s off and there’s no encore.

As wonderful as she was tonight, Angel Olsen is going to have to get used to audience chatter as she plays increasingly larger venues. Perhaps next time she should pick a more austere location, because songs as magical as these deserve the listener’s full attention, so if the crowd won’t shut up, maybe she should just make them sit down.