Album Review: Angel Olsen Is A “Whole New Mess”
There is something dangerous about a dream come true. Somehow, the way reality strikes a dream makes it less “dreamy.” In our minds, a goal is perfectly maintained: forever still and euphoric in results. For most artists, their dream is to have incredible “success;” usually defined as being able to make enough money to buy a house, sell out a venue, and see people singing to their tunes. In 2016, this dream came true for Angel Olsen through the success of her album: My Woman. In August 28, 2020, she is singing to how that triumph brought a “Whole New Mess.”
They say it is lonely at the top, and I cannot attest to that because I have never been there. HA! Yet, I could see it so. Suddenly, stranger eyes grow needier when looking at you and old, loving eyes dimmer at your presence. Friends becomes foes, lovers begin to fade, and now you are in charge of two versions of you: the artist and the person. All these issues can be heard as Angel tries to pick up the pieces from her growing, destructive tendencies. “Waving, Smiling,” “Too Easy (Bigger Than Us),” and “Lark Song” are just a few whirlwind records that will have your ears swooning at Angel’s smoked vocals and shimmeringly, nostalgic lyrics.
Angel Olsen – Whole New Mess (Official Video)
Angel Olsen has an incredible way of making sadness and hopefulness feel like they are a couple swimming under the same moonlight. They gravitate towards each other; unsure if they are truly supposed to be as close as they are. Yet, it makes sense that you hope a dream will repair itself so as to reveal it was truly as “dreamy” as you dreamt it. This is why we stay in jobs for longer and go full-on Survivor to get a promotion or why we hold on to toxic relationships a little tighter in hopes they turn themselves around. Yet, from “Whole New Mess” to “What It Is,” the album feels like a concise re-tracing of the chaos that pushes someone to a personal epiphany: growing up is the only way to grow.
You fall in love, you achieve career milestones, and you earn enough dough to get a house full of bread. The point is we all have basic achievements and motivations that bind us, but Angel Olsen’s “Whole New Mess” is like a glorious leaf-blower to societal fog. Though the album is incredibly intimate in sound and verse, like the sole candle lit in a holy church, you can’t help but feel it is universally sacred. It further notches Angel Olsen’s mournful, mystifying rocker vocals into “Alanis Morrisette Jagged Little Pill” territory; an album and aesthetic that solidified the legend as a 90s, feminist icon. Why? Because sometimes saying your life experience, especially as a member of an oppressed group, is inherently revolutionary. Angel Olsen speaks for the sensitive heart that acknowledges, no matter what, you have to be tough as a woman because it is already tough for a woman. Click Here To Buy.
