The 11 songs that have inspired Angel Olsen the most
Angel Olsen has the unique musical power of making the spotlight seem like a mere candle. Her hushed and raspy tones can wrap you around her fickle finger before she bursts into a maelstrom of emotional exorcism. This prowess has made Olsen one of the most dynamic artists of the modern era, and when you look at the songs that inspire her sound, it is easy to see where she gets this sense of textured beauty from.
Speaking about the songs that inspire her most, Olsen eulogised her waxing and waning hero Alice Coltrane and the jazz star’s beauteous track, ‘Journey in Satchidananda’. “I listen to this song when I take baths. Sometimes you just need a good bath, you need to force yourself to slow down and light some candles and really go all out and play some good music and just sit with your thoughts,” she told the BBC. “I love listening to her for that.”
However, Olsen’s soulmate in a philosophical sense is the songwriting legend Lee Hazlewood. The Oklahoman musician is a master of weaving subverted tales into his cinematic songs. They pride themselves on quirks of the truth with earnest revelations like ‘I love you… 90% of the time’ or abandoning a humble acoustic apology to dive into a big band break-out as the protagonist essentially yells, ‘Actually, I have nothing to apologise for’. For Olsen, Hazlewood’s singular style on one track, in particular, is something she feels bonded to. “This song, ‘Go Die Big City’,” she says, “is how I feel right now about a lot of things.”
While Olsen’s songwriting does indeed enjoy an air of flippancy, you can also always rely on her for an emotional wallop. When it comes to the tracks that provides her with this same weepy slap, she always turns to Donny Hathaway and ‘We Need You Right Now’. “Donny Hathaway always makes me cry. If I ever really need a good cry I just turn him on. He can get to you. Sometimes you need to just start all over and crying is the only way to do that,” she says.
Another element reflected in both her inspirations and her own songwriting, is an eclectic refusal to be tied down and a desire to let music swell however it chooses. Case in point is her opus, ‘Lark’. This opening anthem matured over the course of nearly four years(!) evolving into the blast that it now stands as. As Olsen explained in a press release at the time: “The message of the song developed at first from an argument I once had with someone about trust and support. Later, I pulled from recurring themes in my life as a musician and as a human that dreams for a living. It’s easy to promise the world to those we love, but what about when our dreams change and values split?”
This streaming evolution of thought is something that runs throughout her work. Nothing seems sacred, whether that being the changing opinions in the lyrics, instrumentation or abiding influences and rarely has such flippancy sounded better or more befitting. We don’t live on one track minds all the time, thus, more songs should surely follow suit and sway from their lane into differing creative pastures. ‘Lark’ gloriously reaps the rewards of all the years that went into it.
Her inspirations clearly reflect that. And above all, they also reflect some superb taste on Olsen’s part, which is why we’ve wrapped the tracks up in a playlist for your enjoyment below.
The 11 songs that have inspired Angel Olsen the most:
- ‘Go Die Big City’ – Lee Hazlewood
- ‘I Wish It Would Rain’ – The Temptations
- ‘We Need You Right Now’ – Donny Hathaway
- ‘Now’ – Hypnotic Brass Ensemble
- ‘Khaar’ – Kourosh Yaghmaei
- ‘Nobody Knows the Trouble I’ve Seen’ – Albert Ayler
- ‘Who Knows Where the Time Goes’ – Nina Simone
- ‘Journey in Satchidananda’ – Alice Coltrane & Pharoah Sanders
- ‘Minha Mãe’ – José Afonso
- ‘Bird’s Lament’ – Moondog
- ‘Like a Ship’ – Pastor T.L. Barrett and the Youth for Christ Choir
