Modern folk icon Angel Olsen is back with a lovely and diverse Covers album featuring the likes of Poppy Jean Crawford, Coffin Prick, Sarah Grace White, Maxim Ludwig and Camp Sainte Helene. The Vibe Angel curated on this record is the perfect mixed-bag playlist for a wine bar or coffee shop. It is also a perfect Christmas gift for Vinyl for the average indie rock nerd. Angel let’s her collaborators shine on this album while performing excellent cover versions of her favourite songs from her collaborators.

This album opens with Poppy Jean Crawford’s “Glamorous”, a rocked-out epic with wicked vocals and guitar passages. The energy is in quite a contrast to Angel’s music, which is one of the highlights of this album, and Poppy’s first song is an excellent opener to the record. The track that Angel chose from Poppy’s catalogue is the wonderful song The Takeover. The cover is an exciting take on the song and takes such a groovy and textural song and puts in her nostalgic 60s style that suits the material.

The Coffin Prick song the band picked to be on the album is the fantastic 80s style psychedelic synth-pop track Blood, which is an absolute jam and again shows Angel’s diverse music taste and her ability to create an interesting version of an artists song who. Is making very different music. The next song on Angel’s side of the record is the Coffin Prick song Swimming stripped back once again to Angel’s signature style but is put in a mix style that is very psychedelic with the whole track constantly panning from left to right, making it a fresh and bold version of the song.

I am entirely new to the spiritual ambience of Sarah Grace Whites’s music and the song she picked for this album, Ride and it is a beautiful and calm track that is the first track off the album that shares a similar sound to Angels. The third song on Angel’s side is a cover of Sarahs called Sinkhole, which is definitely my favourite track off this album. That sounds like classic Angel Olsen, simple and emotional, Rich and melodic. Maxim Ludwigs Make You Believe You Love Me is the gorgeous fourth song off the side of the cover and has a classic love song feel but is a great song. It may be the least interesting song off the album for me personally, but the concept of the album is to give a platform for the artists that Angel loves and wants to share some cohesion with the artists she admires.

Born Too Blue is the Maxim Ludwig song Angel covers off her side and is an incredibly cinematic version of the song with so much atmosphere and natural ambience. The last song off the cover side is the gorgeous Wonder Now from Camp Saint Helene. There are some 90s alt-country vibes coming off this track that contain some really good storytelling and guitar textures as well. The last song off Angel’s side is, Farfisa Song from Camp Sainte Helene is a perfect way to end this record and beautiful nonetheless. This album is hopefully the first of many from this inventive and entertaining format for a cover album from Angel Olsen.

order Cosmic Waves Vol. 1 HERE