Angel Olsen – Big Time

Angel Olsen has managed repeatedly to nicely change without going overboard, evolving her sound....
Angel Olsen : Big Time
7.9 Jagjaguwar
2022 
Angel Olsen : Big Time

Angel Olsen has managed repeatedly to nicely change without going overboard, evolving her sound. From the epic heartbreak of 2019’s All Mirrors (QRO review), on new album Big Time she retains that while mixing in some serious twang with her strings.

It all starts with perhaps the best twang of the record in opener “All the Good Times”, so sweetly sad. Olsen’s loss is our loss on pieces like that to the somber closer “Chasing the Sun” and its excellent strings. Instead of dropping her old orchestral grandeur for pedal-twang, Olsen mixes and matches on Time, not to mention the killer intimate “Right Now” (and its killer line, “Why did you have to go and make it weird?”).

During COVID, Olsen teamed up with contemporary alt-star singer/songwriter Sharon Van Etten for the amazing “Like I Used To” (QRO review), and perhaps picked up some notes from the more alt-country Van Etten (they’re about to go on tour together). Just putting more into her music, Big Time.

Categories
Album Reviews
Album of the Week