Angel Olsen has announced new album Whole New Mess – the first she’s recorded solo without any bandmates since 2012’s Half Way Home – will arrive next month.
She’s also shared the title track from the new album, which was recorded in late 2018 at Washington church-turned-studio The Unknown, run by Phil Elverum and Nicholas Wilbur. With just a few guitars and some microphones, isolated in studio, Olsen worked through fresh emotional wounds while grappling with a tumultuous personal time.
“I had gone through this breakup, but it was so much bigger than that – I’d lost friendships, too. When you get out of a relationship, you have to examine who you are or were in all the relationships,” explained Olsen in a statement.
“I wanted to record when I was still processing these feelings. These are the personal takes, encapsulated in a moment.”
Whole New Mess follow Olsen’s excellent 2019 album All Mirrors, and serves as something of a precursor to that record. Multiple tracks from the album including ‘Lark’, ‘Summer’ and ‘Chance’ appear in “some skeletal form” on Whole New Mess, contrasting with the lavish, fully-fleshed out arrangements on All Mirrors.
Watch the video for Whole New Mess’ title track below. The album is out Friday, 28th August via Jagjaguwar.
