On September 2, Angel Olsen released her album My Woman, a swinging, soaring, 1960s-esque pop masterpiece. “Shut Up Kiss Me” is the album’s killer single. The song is infectious, Olsen delivering her vocals slow and deliberate at first, singing “I ain’t hanging up tonight/ I ain’t giving up this time. Later, in the chorus, she is confident, commanding, you can almost hear the smirk behind “shut up, kiss me/ hold me tight”.
To begin with the instrumentation is sparse, quiet, dry guitars almost tricking you into not expecting the song’s inevitable kick off. I’m told the swaggering vocals and punchy band set up is a divergence from Olsen’s older, folkier albums, Olsen’s kick in the gut to anyone who would suggest she couldn’t change or develop as a musician, to anyone who would relegate her only to tenderly delivered heartache (read: sad indie boys who think they’re not misogynists for liking a woman’s music so long as it’s tender). The subtitle to Olsen’s recent MTV profile reads “she doesn’t want to be your sad, indie-rock poster girl anymore”.
Sad indie boys who can only handle quiet, heartbroken women mightn’t appreciate “Shut Up Kiss Me” in all its gleefully robust glory, but who cares. “Shut Up Kiss Me” exemplifies Olsen’s versatility as well as her immense talent as a musician and songwriter, and it is well-worth putting on heavy-rotation.