Whole New Mess

About

“I just wanted people to see me broken down and to know that I’m not afraid to be broken down,” Angel Olsen tells Apple Music. “In fact, my whole life had broken down.” The singer is discussing why she chose to release <i>Whole New Mess</i>—a collection of raw, unvarnished tracks largely made up of demo-like recordings of the songs that would later become souped up and string-laden on 2019’s stunningly ambitious <i>All Mirrors</i>. “Originally, I wanted both to come out at the same time,” she explain. “But I wanted to make an honest account—untampered with by anybody. This was just me, the way that I would make demo.” Recorded at a church-turned-studio in Anacorte, Washington (“I couldn’t do it at home; I was still sitting in a lot of the feelings from the songs and I wanted to have a place to cook them”), <i>Whole New Mess</i> is a world away from the drama of <i>All Mirrors</i>, those galloping melodies and theatrical strings stripped away to leave a lone guitar, the occasional organ, and Olsen’s unmistakable vocal. <i>Whole New Mess</i> i, as the singer put it, “ragged," at times crackling as though it were an old vinyl LP. “It’s purposefully a me,” she say, “because that’s how things are. A lot of the time, cleaning it up is the proce. And I like to show where things start and how messy they are before they get to a point where they’re digestible for people when they come out.” Still, the record is as haunting as you’d expect, Olsen’s voice taking on an almost celestial quality on songs like “(Summer Song),” “Too Easy (Bigger Than Us),” or “Chance (Forever Love)” as it carries the full weight of the experiences and emotions that fueled these track. The dissolution of a relationship may have hit before they were written, but Olsen bristles at the idea that any of them document that alone. “I find it really infantilizing the way people just look at my work as heartbreak,” she say. “All I’m asking is for people to look a little further. That’s all.” Instead, this is an album “inspired by what I’ve been doing, by traveling constantly, by writing constantly for the last seven years and the things that I’ve learned,” she say. “It’s about the hardship that I’ve had to confront with people—not just romantically but just by accidentally [building] a business from the ground up and having to learn a lot of things along the way, the hard way.” By drawing the walls of her music in, she hopes people will see another side to her. “When I go out into the music world and I build my platform, I’m putting on wigs and glam dresses and putting on tons of makeup. Normally, when I get home, it’s a different story. It’s a different person. It’s a different life. I wanted to do something that was a little bit closer to who I actually am.” .

via Apple Music

The Clerk says

Start your shelf to read the full take →