Earworms: Angel Olsen :: Hi-Five

Burn Your Fire CoverOver the last two weeks I’ve had Angel Olsen’s haunting “Hi-Five” on repeat, so it’s safe to say I’ve found my first earworm of 2014. The track harkens the haunting tremolo of Roy Orbison complete with lonely and anxiety filled lyrics to match. When Olsen sings “I feel so lonesome I could cry/But instead I’ll pass the time/Sitting lonely with someone lonely, too” it could easily be a sequel to Orbison’s “Only the Lonely.”

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“Hi-Five” comes from Olsen’s forthcoming release Burn Your Fire for No Witness on the record label Jagjaguwar. The album drops on February 18, but NPR’s “First Listen” is streaming it in full this week.

 

Jesse Russell

Before Oakland, there was Madison, Wisconsin. In Madison, the hours that weren’t filled up by my day job were typically devoured by event planning and running the city’s popular arts and politics news site, Dane101. Some of the events I organized include an annual two-night cabaret/carnival/masquerade party called the Fire Ball Masquerade, Madison's biggest non-city sponsored Halloween party, the geek culture focused MadPubQuiz of Awesomeness, and the first Whedonesque Burlesque in the country. Having successfully reshaped the reality of Madison, Wisconsin I packed up and moved to the Bay Area in February of 2013. In addition to comics, I enjoy imbibing cocktails and beer, exploring foreign cities, consuming food of various temperatures, hearing music performed live, losing at board and card games, and getting caught in the rain.