June 3, 2022 - Jagjaguwar
The simplest things in life are the most elusive. Angel Olsen sings the tragedy of this as clearly as a bell in her sixth studio album Big Time, which reads like an old-school country album without the twang but with all the horrific real, the existential heartbreak.
Olsen wields her voice casually, with the laziness of someone confident in their expertise, with heavy hands holding a sword so sharp it can cut through the air and make it bleed. It’s casual but careful. The words are direct and painful. This is nothing new of course—that is the sonic emotional power I fell in love with when I first heard Olsen’s Strange Cacti EP. She has a specific gift for communicating complexity with biting clarity which made her famous as a songwriter in the first place. But there is impressive maturity in her decisions now, especially when it comes to the instrumentation she drapes herself in. She drips on the auditory adornment (steel guitar, waltzing drums, the occasional brass pomp and circumstance), then drops it off to create contrast at just the right moments. The musical mode is tight, easy to read, and pared down, expert accompaniment. The moments where it's just her voice and a single guitar or a piano still strike the deepest.
Big Time is music for a rainy day when you need to be reminded overtly that other people, other successful people, get what you’re going through, just managing to be alive in the world today. Highlights include the whole album from start to finish in linear order. Though if you are short on time, check out ‘Ghost On,’ ‘Right Now,’ ‘Go Home,’ and namesake single ‘Big Time.’ ☔