Song of the Day: “Unfuck the World”

The most prominent feature of Burn Your Fire For No Witness is the haunting voice of Angel Olsen. The St. Louis-bred singer’s husky tone sounds a bit like Cat Power with an exposed nerve. Though Olsen is only 27 (or thereabouts), throughout her new record she manages to convey a woundedness we might expect to encounter in a much older person. The slow-burning first track, “Unfuck the World,” grieves a lost love:

I have to save my life
I need some peace of mind
I am the only one now
I am the only one now
I am the only one now

With each repetition of the last line, Olsen reminds us of the strength to be found in solitude. “Unfuck the World” is the first song performed by Olsen for NPR’s Tiny Desk Concert web series.

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Read more of Max Gray at Big City Sasquatch or follow him on Twitter @City_Sasquatch. His fiction and nonfiction have appeared in Encounters, Mount Hope, Conte, tNY.press, and English Kills Review. He co-hosts the etymology podcast Words For Dinner and is a graduate of the Rutgers-Newark MFA program.

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