Oh Louise, the recording name of Maine-based teenage songwriter Olive Siegel, has shared a new track, "Machine Angel," the latest preview of her debut full-length album, Everything On High, out August 21.
Siegel has been releasing music online since middle school, after turning to songwriting during COVID-era school lockdowns, and began recording as Oh Louise in 2024 with her first EP, In My Room. Everything On High was recorded in producer Charles Van Kirk's home studio, with contributions from cellist Nat Smith and Wilco's John Stirratt.
"Machine Angel" is built as a stripped-back folk ballad -- gentle acoustic guitar, a simple strum pattern -- before digital noise, strings and guitar fill in the margins and build to a sweeping wall of sound by the song's final stretch. The lyrics turn on anxieties about AI, tracking what Siegel calls the "impending doom" of the current digital age.
"It feels like we're being constantly berated by all this fast paced stimulation from some massive sinister algorithm that knows us intimately," Siegel said, adding that she wrote the song about a year ago and feels its warning has already arrived.
"Machine Angel" cites Radiohead's "Exit Music (For a Film)" and "How to Disappear Completely" as touchstones for its wall-of-sound arrangement, part of the claustrophobic feeling Siegel wanted the song to carry. Everything On High is now part of the wave of new indie and pop releases tracked on the release calendar.
The facts
- New track 'Machine Angel' previews the debut album Everything On High
- Album out August 21, recorded in producer Charles Van Kirk's home studio
- Features cellist Nat Smith and Wilco's John Stirratt
- Oh Louise debuted in 2024 with the EP In My Room
- Lyrics reflect anxieties about AI, inspired partly by Radiohead
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