My Heart Was Always Open

Hamilton Leithauser & Angel Olsen “Heartstruck (Wild Hunger)”

Hamilton Leithauser voices has always conveyed a lot of romance so it’s nice to hear him go full-on ’50s pop ballad with “Heartstruck.” The sentiment of this tune is overwhelming – they’re really laying the twinkling starlight melodrama on thick in the arrangement, it sounds like it’s meant to be the happy ending of a Hollywood tearjerker. Leithauser’s performance is business as usual for him – ragged and vulnerable, with the emoting dialed up a few notches above what most normal singers would do. Angel Olsen goes a bit further, pushing her voice into an over-the-top trill that sounds more periodic-specific, like she’s just trying to make sure this powerful feeling comes across on a transistor radio.

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