Spectreview: Angel Olsen – Whole New Mess

Released: August 28, 2020

Singer-Songwriter
Solo
Alternative

-ELECTRIC INDIGO-

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Incongruous title notwithstanding, Angel Olsen’s latest LP, Whole New Mess, delivers on the promise she made to release a stark, solo interpretation of last year’s All Mirrors. The dynamic grandiosity of that record’s instrumentation, and the glamorous chanteuse image she crafted for herself, helped cement her as a performer as potent and mercurial as, perhaps, Bowie himself. Here, like so many “stripped down” records before it, is a chance for Olsen to showcase the strength of her songwriting without the emotional priming of an entire orchestra behind her. Does she pull it off? Overall, absolutely, even if the results are just a touch uneven.

Primarily, Whole New Mess gives us exactly what makes Angel Olsen such a captivating performer, which is exactly the formula for so many legendary artists: emotional power uncompromised by simplicity. Only two ingredients remain (three if you count her production touches), and one of those ingredients is a proven force of nature with the power to sever the heartstrings. As on her more austere records, Olsen’s voice is spotlit here, and most of the barebones versions of these songs allow it your undivided attention.

“Reinterpretation” records like this always run the risk of redundancy or, at worst, unnecessariness. Having an easy comparison point, especially one as uniformly appreciated as All Mirrors, tempts the listener to compare versions and threatens to rob these songs of their novel contexts. There’s also, of course, the inability to replicate the sweeping melodrama that punctuated All Mirrors’ most devastating moments. Olsen circumvents this by applying different effects to her voice and her guitar between songs; this, combined with her usual vocal manipulation, is a clever way to simulate variety without sacrificing the record’s pared-back nature. It’s also worth mentioning how good Olsen is at sequencing her records for maximum inertia, and in that way Whole New Mess is as satisfying wholly as it is piece by piece.

Taking everything into account, most of the material here is just as good, if not better, than what’s on its companion. “(Summer Song)” carries on the Western flourishes of “Summer” in a gentler context, while “Tonight (Without You)” sees her eerily channeling Chan Marshall and “Chance (Forever Love)” takes “Chance’s” apocalyptic conclusiveness and pares it back to a ghostly retelling. What’s more, its two strongest tracks might just be the ones without a previous blueprint. “Whole New Mess” pairs bright strings with a trademark top-of-the-lungs quaver, and the outcome is blissfully idyllic: the sound of green leaves shading a cloudy sky. “Waving, Smiling” is just as stunning, as crisp and sun-drenched as a summer pond.

Only a couple tracks fall short here, and tellingly they bear the largest producer footprint on the album. “Too Easy (Bigger Than Us)” cloaks Olsen’s voice in just a little too much bright reverb, the performance itself is a little too blunt compared to the subtlety of its twin; “(We Are All Mirrors)” is similarly blunt and overproduced, especially considering the dynamic journey its predecessor takes.

Despite how strongly it works as an album, Whole New Mess is thus best appraised on a case-by-case basis. Nevertheless, it’s still an overall success, with the overwhelming majority of its tracks worthy of their reinterpretations. It’s not better than All Mirrors, but it’s also not worse; minus the grandiosity, it’s streamlined construction provides a more focused spotlight for Olsen’s universal truths about love and loss, truths that are still as devastatingly succinct as ever.

Recommended for one mirror.