Angel Olsen has had many phases – her last record was Phases – and now the singer/songwriter embraces both intimate emotion and expansive orchestration. All Mirrors is heartbreaking in its confession, while also epic in its sound.
Starting with opener “Lark”, All Mirrors has a powerful grandeur. Too often, grand music substitutes size of sound for weight, as if yet more strings or synthesizers will make a song meaningful. But pieces like “Lark” and the tragic following title track see Olsen express herself without losing herself in it all. And Mirrors isn’t All sadness; there’s also the relaxed, airy beauty of “New Love Cassette”, great wry storytelling “Spring”, and almost Feist-like sly dance “What It Is” (though those might have been better placed interspersed on the record, rather than back-to-back-to-back).
Angel Olsen manages to go big without just going big, diva without being a diva, on the impressive All Mirrors.
