Stripped of her musical entourage, Angel Olsen returns 10 months after the celestial success of All Mirrors with its sister LP, Whole New Mess, resentfully reflecting the close quarters we all find ourselves in - with lukewarm results.
Over the past 6 months of lockdown, we’ve all inevitably faced similar challenges to the American singer-songwriter Angel Olsen. However, this set of crossroads she finds herself at has been induced by a myriad of extenuating circumstances: thyroid disease, bouts of depression, alcohol addiction, crumbling relationships, exacerbated by the toll of a musician’s demanding lifestyle. Perhaps it’s no wonder why Olsen has cascaded down from the glorified waves of her preceding LP to chalk up a clutterless experience entailing purely herself and her guitar.
Relinquishing her numerous synthesisers, drums, percussion, and vocal layers of the past, here the reigns are guided at the hands of a clanky, reverberating guitar tinged with distortion. Unfortunately, this ‘distortion’, assigned also to Olsen’s vocals, brands itself vociferously on this record. Becoming downright irritable on ‘Too Easy’; shamefully masking the intimate whisperings in ‘Tonight (Without You)’; warping the once-gleaming lyricism of ‘Lark Song’ and culminating with a feverish buzzing quality in ‘Impasse (Workin’ For the Name)’ - its insipid nature proliferates far and wide to the LP’s detriment.
The real pity of this record reveals itself once we search under the bonnet of this experienced automobile. Enticing vocal ranges and deliveries from Olsen can be heard throughout, garnering an eclectic mix of influences including Kate Bush’s versatility, to Jim Morrison’s poeticism, to Mike Hadreas’ sumptuous whisperings, as well as Elvis Presley’s emotional outpouring. A plundering of musical traverses can be traced within Olsen’s prowess, albeit heavily masked with some shamefully poor production choices ubiquitous within this LP’s progression.
However, when Olsen’s prowess does shine through, it radiates beautifully (rather oxymoronically given the subject matter) against the simplistic instrumentals. A pitiful resignation within the title track transcends toward a Lana Del Rey-esque questioning of self-worth and eternal love in both ‘(Summer Song)’ and ‘Chance (Forever Love)’, “was I becoming what I had to be? / forever’s just so far.”
“I’m waving, smiling at love forever, alive and dying.”
Interrogating love’s bountiful directions and definitions, Olsen concludes her spirited quest with a ripened solace, “knowing that you loved someone doesn’t mean you were ever in love.” These statements touch us most when the levels of tainted distortion are at its least, peaked within ‘Waving, Smiling’ which seeps a fatal desperation from her heart, “I’m waving, smiling at love forever, alive and dying.”
Whilst Angel Olsen’s 5th LP awkwardly concludes on a note entirely at odds with the rest of its predecessors, Whole New Mess somewhat fails to match or compliment its antithetical, ethereal sister LP, All Mirrors. On the surface, Olsen’s personal sentiments should prove pertinent, relatable, and heart-breaking on this LP, as we’ve seen before on 2016’s My Woman, yet is overblown with unnerving, pervasive distortion and reverb effects. As I dream of a live set from Olsen featuring her lone guitar and vocals in the distant future, in reality I currently find myself at a crossroads with this LP - consumed by a mixture of intrigue and disappointment.
5/10
Angel Olsen's latest LP, Whole New Mess, is out now and can be found here.
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