Angel Olsen is back with latest EP, 'Forever Means'
Angel Olsen’s 2022 record “Big Time” was a both heartbreaking and heartwarming display of her musical and life expeditions thus far. In it she walked the trails of many different parts of life including grief and love, ultimately creating an album that was bigger than itself and required an extension of the ideas that were still floating around its wide open landscape. From this, “Forever Means” was born; the 4 track EP is a perfectly bittersweet collection of stories from Big Time’s vault that each contribute to its philosophy in their own dreamy ways.
The earthiness of Olsen’s voice and its archetypal vibrato are something you could recognize anywhere. “Nothing’s Free” displays these traits alongside a jazzy piano base which brings them together seamlessly into one breathtaking ecosystem. The folk singer appears confident in her vulnerability, assuring that “nothing’s free/Like breaking free” and that breaking down “that old cell/The one you thought had kept you safe” can initiate a rebirth of sorts, similar to the way spring heals our natural world from its winters. Organ and saxophone creep up as the song progresses, trading solos and roaring over the latter half in dramatic waves.
Down to the matching deep greens and golds of their covers, “Forever Means” and “Big Time” mirror each other in their raw genuinity. They each offer a glimpse into the terrain Olsen trekked in her personal journey, including coming to terms with her queerness and losing her parents in such a short period of time. In track 2 particularly, she’s slowing down and coming to conclusions on these ideas in terms of what “Forever Means”. The word holds many meanings to the Asheville based singer-songwriter because, as she sang herself, “the searching goes on forever”. Always looking, trying to see, saying what’s on your mind, and taking your time are the definitions she offers between acoustic accompaniment in this mellow array of endearment.
Pen meets paper like body meets earth in lyrics like “I want you/I need you right now/To be here and lay down and get on the ground/And hear it, feel it, know that you’re bound/To the earth to each other/And that’s where it’s found”. They come from “Time Bandits”, which is a continuation of the kind of romance between nature and humanity Olsen brought into play with her preceding album; it also mimics the slow dance tempo of title track “Big Time”.
“Holding On” is the last and noisiest song on this new project. The energy never relaxes as contributions from growling guitars and wandering strings compliment her aching vocals. Each lyric further twists the knife of regret: “couldn’t see the light you brought to me/Now it’s gone”. The electric air of this track mirrors the cinematic angst of tracks like “All The Good Times” (“Big Time) and “All Mirrors” (“All Mirrors”).
These few stories that didn’t quite make it onto the album still have an importance to Angel Olsen’s deep discography, which has been cleverly expanded by her constant sifting through sound and technique. Listening to past records is like floating in a rushing river of stories that reflect her standing at the time both as an artist and fellow human being. On the other hand, each piece of “Forever Means” is a unique key specific to unlocking doors from Big Time’s emotional story. Her ability to see the sunshine among the cloudy skies of this weather offers rays of hope for listeners and is immensely admirable. It radiates in a line like “and dance if you’re crying/Get those spirits up”, bouncing off the warm lakes of comfort given to her through relationships with other people and mother nature herself.