by Kris Handel (@khandel84)
Whole New Mess is Angel Olsen’s fifth full length release, and the majority is made up of re-interpretations of songs from her most recent album All Mirrors. On this release Olsen is accompanied solely by herself which hearkens back to her earlier days and is a departure from her recent albums which contain lusher production values. As Olsen’s career has progressed, she has trodden many paths with her inquisitive songwriting and powerful vocals always at the fore no matter how elaborate the production has grown or how varied the stylistic shifts. Olsen’s work has always had a haunting quality to it which is never more apparent than when she is at her most bare and vulnerable, of which there are many moments in her discography.
Olsen is at her most sobering on a song like the title track (which is one of two songs that didn’t appear on All Mirrors) as her voice swoops over lightly strummed guitar, dealing with the passing of time and surroundings. Olsen’s vocals fluctuate from plaintive cries to a surprising sturdiness that works ever so well creating a mesmerizing dichotomy. One of the most striking differences from the All Mirrors songs comes in the form of “(New Love) Cassette” which is stripped of billowing synths and jarring percussion bringing a whole new power to the song. Olsen’s vocals are full of vibrato and echo while her guitar work slips from chord to chord persistently and allows for more freedom rather than the somewhat claustrophobic atmosphere of the previous version.
“(Summer Song)” presents itself as a more fragile meditation and hews closely to folk chanteuse territory as Olsen’s vocal work carries a tender beauty touched with melancholy. Lyrics like “And all those people that I thought knew me well/After all that time they couldn’t tell/How I lost my soul/Was just a shell/Just a fragment of myself…” strike a different chord when pared with sparse guitar strums and Olsen’s remarkable vocal ability to switch from aching and sorrowful to determined and unrelenting. “(Lark Song)” introduces itself with forceful acoustic guitar and up-front vocals that quickly explode into a powerful chorus that has Olsen soaring at the higher reaches of her vocal range. Olsen shows how tactful she is with changing her vocal approaches and tempos to demonstrate mood shifts and varying levels of power she carries within her.
Whole New Mess allows Olsen to show off how versatile she is as a musician and vocalist in the barest of settings and how the strength of her songwriting and melodic prowess never wavers. There is a different sense to these songs in this approach that carries a different weight with them, everything just hits differently and opens up new opportunities for the audience to unlock. The contrasts that Olsen can evoke are breathtaking and this record documents her uncanny ability to pull at your emotions no matter how she chooses to accompany herself. For an artist to have such confidence that is displayed in these performances is something that should be marveled at and Whole New Mess lays bare the strength Olsen has to captivate and entrance in any form she chooses.