Filippa Frisell and Erik Olsson carve tremendous sorrow into life’s coarse bark. Even when they’re offering olive branches of hope, there’s an unshakable heaviness flowing through their musical grooves. Together, the Swedish singers and songwriters form Orange Oak, and their debut EP feels like they’ve taken a literal wood engraver and left their mark for future generations to witness. almost, I thought to myself serenely and resolutely creaks beneath the weight of inherited trauma, as they observe with bloodshot eyes in opener “garden green eyes,” whereas Frisell and Olsson let the tears flow when they lament that “I’m just so tired of lying and hiding my ways” in follow-up stunner, “love isn’t everything.” Their stark approach, akin to The Civil Wars and The Lone Bellow, punches with resounding thuds. You just can’t ignore them.
Orange Oak twist their sparkling silver pen across the remaining five songs. The duo wades chest-deep into heartbreak in “the alchemist,” spun with prickly threads into a homey cloth. “They say when you are young and naive, it’s eternally summer,” they muse, tearing their hearts back open again. That misery fuels much of their work, yet it remains bright for the future to come. Storms only ever last for a season; once the clouds part, the sun bestows endless warmth. In their final hour, a live rendition of “genom old & vatten,” the listener might be gobsmacked that they’re just as eloquent and potent as they are on recordings. almost, I thought to myself is one of those rare debuts that you will never forget.
almost, I thought to myself is out now via Nettwerk Music Group.
Follow Orange Oak on Instagram and TikTok
Leave a Reply