Angel Olsen (Photo by Kylie Coutts)
Angel Olsen announces Song of the Lark and Other Far Memories, a box set featuring All Mirrors and Whole New Mess, plus a bonus LP titled Far Memory, and a 40-page book collection, out May 7 on Jagjaguwar.
In conjunction with the announcement, she presents “It’s Every Season (Whole New Mess).”
Originally conceived as a double album, All Mirrors and Whole New Mess were distinct parts of a larger whole, twin stars that each expressed something bigger and bolder than Angel Olsen had ever made. Now, with Song of the Lark and Other Far Memories, these twin stars become a constellation with the full extent of the songs’ iterations: all the alternate takes, b-sides, remixes and reimaginings are here, together. Alongside, a 40-page book collection tells a similar story, not just through outtakes and unseen photos but through the smaller, evocative details: handwritten lyrics, a favorite necklace, a beaded chandelier. As if it could be more plainly stated (there’s nothing more), Angel adds one cover here: a loving, assertive rendition of Roxy Music’s “More Than This.”
“It’s Every Season (Whole New Mess)” was recorded during the All Mirrors session, and is an alternate version of “Whole New Mess.” It has an acoustic backbone, blooming with Angel’s singular voice. As it continues, the song erupts with drums, electric bass, and Nate Walcott’s brass arrangement.
Watch a video visualizer for “It’s Every Season (Whole New Mess)” by Angel Olsen on YouTube:
Released in 2019, All Mirrors is massive in scope and sound, tracing Angel’s ascent into the unknown, to a place of true self-acceptance, no matter how dark, or difficult, or seemingly lonely. All Mirrors is colossal, moving, dramatic in an Old Hollywood manner. Recorded before All Mirrors but released after, Whole New Mess is the bones and beginnings of the songs that would rewrite Angel’s story. This is Angel Olsen in her classic style: stark solo performances, echoes and open spaces, her voice both whispered and enormous. All Mirrors and Whole New Mess presented the two glorious extremes of an artist who, in these songs, became new by embracing herself entirely.
In first speaking about Song of the Lark and Other Far Memories, Angel said, “It feels like part of my writing has come back from the past, and another part of it was waiting to exist.”