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Angel Olsen’s new album Big Time is the kind of rare, generation-spanning album you might give to your sister, aunt, or grandparents. His 10 soulful country songs evoke everything from Dusty Springfield’s 1969 masterpiece Dusty in Memphis to 2001’s Grammy-winning Shelby Lynne I am Shelby Lynne, from Tammy Wynette to Lucinda Williams – and are at the center of it all Olsen’s soaring songs and crystal clear, versatile voice. It’s also a reminder of coming out, of the pandemic, and of grieving for her parents (who died within months of 2021), without being explicit around any of these things.
Like most working musicians, Olsen saw her blossoming career in March 2020 after nearly a decade of non-stop touring and five increasingly critically acclaimed and diverse indie albums, crowned with 2019’s standout “All Mirrors.” But she’s also had quite a public presence struggled with their sexuality, with men-are-kinda-crappy-am-i-gay? pondered in interviews over the years and found the answer to that question in her relationship with writer Beau Thibodeaux, which the couple announced last spring. Shortly before her death she came to live with her mother.
“I think she already knew,” says Olsen. “And about a week later I was at my father’s funeral with my partner, so that was intense. But my mother was a very loving person and I think she found it understanding in her heart. She said, ‘I just want you to be happy,’ that’s all I wanted to hear.”
While Olsen says all of these factors contributed to the bittersweet tone of “Big Time,” they’re the focus of the 28-minute companion film of the same name, which sees the singer with Kimberly Stuckwisch (Olivia Rodrigo’s “Sour Prom” concert film) and on Thursday released on Twitch by Amazon Music, a day before the album (see movie below). “It’s kind of a tribute to my mother,” says Olsen of the film. “I had many vivid dreams after she died. When I saw what Kim had done with Olivia Rodrigo, I realized that she was already making short films about music, and I said I’d like to do something like that — where we talk a bit about the fear of coming out and mine mother speak death and such. It allowed me to grieve in a different way. It’s probably the most personal work I’ve ever done to share with the public.”
The album itself is less autobiographical, an exercise in audio vérité led by producer and musician Jonathan Wilson, who has worked extensively with Lana Del Rey and Billy Strings and recorded a similarly dated-sounding album (albeit 1940s-tinged) with Father John Misty reminiscent), “Chloë and the Next 20th Century”, just before “Big Time”.
“His studio in Topanga Canyon is a really loving, intuitive environment,” says Olsen. “It was the first time I went into a studio without rehearsals or intensive notes on anything. It wasn’t deliberate, and Jonathan was really good at letting my voice steer the ship instead of going all out on backflips with the production.”
Despite the horns and strings in the arrangements, the early “Big Time” sessions were fast-paced and fun.
“The studio is state of the art, but we’re in the woods — it’s crazy out here, you know?” Wilson says. “I’ve brought my First Call band, guys I’ve been working with for a decade, so there’s a lot of banter and things aren’t too serious – and she was a perfect fit. She told me she’d done the LA thing, met producers and seen studios, but when she came here she said, ‘This is the right place.’
“And she’s just a bloody powerhouse when she gets on the mic,” he continues. “With some singers you kind of struggle to find the right mood or get the right mood and delivery – that happens to the best of them. But with her you just say, ‘All these takes are good.’ She’s one of the best I’ve ever worked with.” (Also from the sessions, Wilson mentions “a whole collection of B-sides that are really great. Some of them are really jazzy, and one is a super rocker with two us on the drums.”)
Though Olsen has put a lot of herself in the public eye — and will literally do so on her summer US tour with Sharon Van Etten and Julien Baker, which kicks off next month — it’s a process she’s reasonably comfortable with. “I feel like, yes, there’s a lot of risk in sharing these really intimate experiences,” she admits, “but people are always watching [art] through her own lens, so I feel like there’s some protection there.
“Besides,” she concludes, “there’s so much more to my life than just music. It’s not always easy, it’s not always fun, but I never get bored. And when people join me on this journey, I sometimes feel a little less alone, and like maybe there’s someone else out there who needs to hear that.”
