Possibly a lower score (with higher Controversy Index) than we’d have expected from these two…
[Video]
[6.00]
Oliver Maier: What should be at the very least a reliable [6]+ given the calibre of the artists involved instead collapses under its own weight into sludge. Etten and Olsen go in guns blazing on melodies and lyrics that simply don’t deserve the effort, neither of them playing to their respective strengths. I’m reminded of early Arcade Fire in tone but there’s none of the push and pull, little of the granular, paint-peeling-off-the-wall detail.
[4]
Nortey Dowuona: A massive caterwaul of pianos and guitars crash over the strong frame drums with a thick coat of bass as Angel and Sharon’s strong voices carry the frame, with Angel letting loose a little scampering synth just before she begins to sing, the song flying right through the sun and soaking up all the flares and circling until they speared them across the galaxy, every single one turning to a star.
[10]
John S. Quinn-Puerta: Two artists that have never quite clicked for me don’t do any better here. The Orbison vocal vibrato feels overwrought, the vibraphone and glockenspiel feel a bit too trite, and the arpeggiated keys feel tacked on by the end. Not even the delightfully crunchy guitar can save this for me.
[3]
Thomas Inskeep: Strong women singing strongly: Van Etten and Olsen sound marvelous singing against each other. I’m kind of amazed Jack Antonoff didn’t produce this, because it has his peak-big-pop (as opposed to folklore) sound all over it.
[9]
Andrew Karpan: The pair have been grouped together by playlist creators, savvy demographic marketers and, lately, by indie producer John Congleton, who recorded some of Olsen’s most popular records before turning to Van Etten’s latest, the divisively loud Remind Me Tomorrow. Here, Congleton has brought these long-winded efforts one step further by awkwardly splicing their voices together onto the same bombastic four-minute single, which comes off more as a novelty-value mixing room experiment or demo reel than a duet or even a conversation. In smashing their voices together, the record flattens their sound into a noisy, shapeless indie pantomime made to hover dangerously for the next few months around the edges of XMU’s programming blocks.
[2]
Samson Savill de Jong: This is essentially a nostalgic song, pining for a time when the singers were younger and freer and less worn down by life, and making half hearted attempts to ape the processes (having a lie in) even though they know they can’t really replicate the underlying factors. The lyrics are a little obtuse initially (I only got that “One more session overdrive/The ceiling is the roof” meant getting publicly wasted when reading it written down) but I’m inclined towards saying it’s because they’re poetic rather than naff. None of that really matters though, because the song just sounds good. It’s just a pleasure to listen to these two sing, and I could put the song on back to back to back and not tire of it, which is a rare accolade.
[9]
Alfred Soto: Sharon Van Etten specializes in the well-etched grand, Angel Olsen the quietly overwrought, and while this dialectical tension might’ve resulted in a triumph “Like I Used To” is rickety, big to no purpose, like Stevie Nicks fronting Pulp.
[5]