Music / Angel Olsen

"Angel Olsen could sing Row Row Row Your Boat and it would bring me to tears."

—Michelle Zauner of Japanese Breakfast

Angelina Marie Carroll (born January 22, 1987), known by her stage name Angel Olsen, is an American singer-songwriter known for her unique singing voice and poetic yet simplistic lyricism. She has released six studio albums covering a wide range of genres, from Folk Music to Alternative Country to Synth-Pop.

She was born in St. Louis, Missouri, and was adopted by a foster family at the age of three. As a child, she aspired to become a Pop star, but as a teenager became more interesting in punk rock and noise music. She began to write her own music in high school and later joined a local band.

She released her debut EP, Strange Cacti in 2011 and her debut album Half Way Home in 2012, and her trademark vocals and earnest country-style songwriting caught the attention of the indie sphere. In 2014, she signed to record label Jagjaguwar and released Burn Your Fire For No Witness, then My Woman in 2016. She released All Mirrors in 2019, followed by Whole New Mess in 2020, a sister record of acoustic demos from All Mirrors. She closed out the era with the release of a box set with all the material from both records, Songs of the Lark and Other Far Memories.

In 2022, she released Big Time alongside an accompanying film for the album, directed by Kimberly Stuckwisch. She's collaborated with Sharon Van Etten, Mark Ronson, Madi Diaz, Cass McCombs, Sturgill Simpson, and Alex Cameron.

Discography

Albums

• Half Way Home (2012)
• Burn Your Fire For No Witness (2014)
• MY WOMAN (2016)
• All Mirrors (2019)
• Whole New Mess (2020)
• Big Time (2022)

EPs

• Strange Cacti EP, (2011)
• Aisles (2021)
• Forever Means (2023)

Compilations

• Phases (2017)
• Songs of the Lark and Other Far Memories (2021)

Shut up, trope me, hold me tight:

• Adoption Angst: On "White Fire," she sings:
  I heard my mother thinking me right back into my birth
  I laughed so loud inside myself it all began to hurt
• This could be alluding to Angel's status as an adoptee and the emotional turmoil caused by possibly being unwanted by her birth mother. Though, like with most of Angel's songwriting, whether or not these lines are based on her real life or are just storytelling is up in the air.
• Album Title Drop:
  • On "Always Half Strange":
  And it's always half strange to believe in anything
  Halfway insane, and halfway home in your arms
  • On "White Fire":
  If you've still got some light in you, then go before it's gone
  Burn your fire for no witness, it's the only way it's done
• All Love Is Unrequited: "Never Be Mine," pretty straightforwardly.
• Ambiguously Bi: Initially. She described herself as "gay" in an Instagram post, then later clarified that she idenitifies as pansexual.
• Anti-Love Song: On "Tonight," she sings about how much happier she is now that this other person is out of her life.
• Artist and the Band: While on tour, she was listed as "Angel Olsen and the Big Time Band."
• Be Careful What You Wish For: "Nothing's Free" is about finding personal freedom at the cost of something dear. The Reality Subtext is that Angel had finally come out to her parents shortly before they both passed away.
• Beehive Hairdo: Has sported a more elegant and subdued version of this style a lot, especially during the All Mirrors era.
• Break-Up Song: Many hard-hitting ones. "Creator Destroyer," "Pops," "Lark," "Tonight," and "Impasse."
• B-Side: The songs on the Forever Means EP were recorded for Big Time, but didn't make it onto the album.
• Caps Lock: My Woman is stylized as MY WOMAN.
• Childish Bangs: Her signature hairstyle for a while. So iconic that she even wrote a farewell to her bangs once she decided to grow them out.
• Costume Porn: The "All Mirrors" video sees Angel in many beautiful monochrome outfits, and her Mirror Self wears an extravagant headdress.
• Cover Album: Aisles is an EP of covers of popular 80s songs. Seen as a sort of Breather Episode after the extensive All Mirrors/Whole New Mess/Songs of the Lark era.
• Cover Version: Has covered "Mr. Lonely" by Bobby Vinton, "Tougher than the Rest" by Bruce Springsteen, "Who's Sorry Now" by Connie Francis, "Gloria" by Laura Branigan, "Safety Dance" by Men Without Hats, "If You Leave" by Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark, "Forever Young" by Alphaville, "Eyes Without a Face" by Billy Idol, and "Greenville" by Lucinda Williams.
• Deliberately Monochrome: The All Mirrors album cover and the vinyl packaging is all a tasteful black, white, and silver.
• Desperate Plea for Home: "Go Home" is this, with full yearning.
• Destructive Romance: Many of her songs deal with this, with varying levels of severity.
• Distinct Double Album: Not an actual double album, but the first half of My Woman is more upbeat with shorter and faster-paced songs, while the latter half is slower and more meditative.
• Downer Ending: My Woman ends with a pleading, heartwrenching breakup song.
• Either/Or Title: "Forgiven/Forgotten."
• Epic Rocking: "Lonely Universe," "White Fire," "Sister," "Woman," and "Lark," all exceed six minutes.
• Face on the Cover: My Woman, All Mirrors and Aisles.
• Grief Song:
  • "Lonely Universe" tells the story of a young child losing their mother in the morning before school.
  • Big Time is a whole grief album, written after both of her adoptive parents passed away.
• In the Style of:
  • The Aisles EP is a collection of 80s covers in tribute to the synthpop of the era.
  • "Big Time" is a pastiche of classic country artists like Patsy Cline and Dolly Parton.
• Lyrical Dissonance: "Never Be Mine" is an upbeat, 60s-inspired rock song about realizing the person she loves will never love her back.
• Miniscule Rocking: The fittingly-titled "Smaller" is only a minute long.
• Melismatic Vocals: Used to great effect with her yodel-like singing.
• Mirror Self: The All Mirrors music video. This concept is also the inspiration for the entire album.
• New Sound Album:
  • Burn Your Fire saw her take a turn into garage-rock and electric guitar work, opposed to the plain acoustic folk of Half Way Home and her first EP.
  • All Mirrors is a completely new direction, with synths and strings taking center stage a la A Moon Shaped Pool.
  • Big Time is like if All Mirrors and Burn Your Fire did a fusion dance, bringing back the folk rock and americana twang combined with the luscious strings and piano ballads.
• Non-Appearing Title: Strange Cacti and My Woman, though the latter does have a song called "Woman."
• Please, Don't Leave Me: Said almost verbatim on "Pops." By the end of the song, she gives up and lets the other person go.
• Precision F-Strike: A truly incredible one at the end of "Creator, Destroyer," after a full EP of songs with no profanity at all.
  Fuck this and everything we've done
  Fuck you, fuck you and your lies.
• Self-Referential Track Placement: "All Mirrors," about duality and mirroring, is track #2.
• Scenery Porn: The video for "Lark" has several drone shots of Angel trudging through the mountains of North Carolina. It looks absolutely gorgeous.
• Spiritual Antithesis: "Woman" is this to "Running Up That Hill" by Kate Bush. Both songs are about wanting to switch places with a partner to better understand them, but while Kate would absolutely do so (if she only could), Angel concludes that it wouldn't even matter because the other person never cared about how she felt in the first place.
  I'd do anything to see it all the way that you do
  But I'd be lying, but I'd be lying to you
• Surreal Music Video: If you count the Big Time film as music video, then yes.
• Minimalism / Three Chords and the Truth: Many of her songs have minimal/simple chords, and gain their power from her lyrics and voice instead. Strange Cacti and Whole New Mess are entirely just guitar and voice.
• Textless Album Cover: Strange Cacti, MY WOMAN, and All Mirrors.
• Time Travel: In the Big Time film, Angel travels through different points in time (each corresponding to a different song) after the death of her mother.
• Title-Only Chorus: The chorus of "Never Be Mine" is just "you'll never be mine" repeatedly.
• Title Track: All Mirrors and Big Time.
• You Are Not Alone: The message of "If It's Alive, It Will."

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I'll be the thing that lives in the dream when it's gone.

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