It’s been a big year for Angel Olsen. She came out as queer just before recording her album Big Time, and both of her parents passed away, days and then weeks after she told them. In the face of it all, her new album is fitting for her enduring, survivor spirit. Olsen mourns and celebrates, creating an album full of heartbreak along with love and resilience. It’s music that doesn’t shy away from the pain of life but never loses the optimism that forms its core. The album was preceded by the lead single “All the Good Times“, and followed by a second single, the title track “Big Time“.
Music Video: Angel Olsen – Big Time
“On your first listen of Angel Olsen’s sixth album, Big Time, it’s hard not to be swept away by the transportive, blissful warmth of its country-inflected guitar licks and gentle, ’70s-inspired organs—plus, of course, Olsen’s vocals, which careen from the silky crooning of “Through the Fires” to the impassioned, aching cries of “Go Home”,” mentions Angela Ricciardi of Vogue.
Many first heard Angel Olsen as one of Bonnie “Prince” Billy’s backup singers when she was part of The Cairo Gang in the late Aughts. In 2010, she released a solo acoustic EP called Strange Cacti, which she followed in 2012 with the folksy and assured full-length Half Way Home. The Asheville-based singer’s artistic growth and evolution have been a constant throughout each release, but Big Time might mark the biggest bound yet. Though her warm warbles and whispers feel familiar, a new quality in her voice — now clearer and more country than ever — feels revelatory.
Music Video: Angel Olsen – Through The Fires
Angel Olsen has now embarked on The Wild Hearts Tour to promote her new album. The tour featuring Olsen, Sharon Van Etten, and Julien Baker will continue to cross the country this summer: three singer-songwriters at the top of their respective games. Nonetheless, Olsen has proven herself over and over to be a songwriter who contains multitudes, and her performance eases the audience into the album’s emotional theme.
Angel Olsen – Big Time ALBUM REVIEW
Stream on Angel Olsen – “Big Time” Album
You may also like: