On the heels of the ambitious
All Mirrors, which featured a 14-piece chamber orchestra, and its stripped-down, solo companion album,
Whole New Mess,
Angel Olsen headed to the studio with first-time collaborator
Jonathan Wilson in 2021 to record her sixth full-length,
Big Time, at his studios in Topanga, California. With components that span brittle acoustics, fuzzy rock textures, and swelling strings, it revisits some of the mournful alt-country that marked early albums like
Half Way Home, at times with a stronger mid-century feel. There's no solitary approach to
Big Time, however, an album that was written as
Olsen was coming out as queer and which reflects on endings, regrets, and loss as well as hope, love, and acceptance -- if all with a yearning, apprehensive touch. The track list's country-heavy first half begins with a drum intro followed by a retro-shaded arrangement of organ, lap steel, concert bells, and horns on the ambling "All the Good Times." Although
Olsen's sleepy, circular questioning defines much of this song, it reaches overdriven, full-band heights about two-thirds of the way through, as she asserts, "So long, farewell, this is the end/And I'll always remember you just like a friend." While tracks like "Go Home" and "Through the Fires" also address letting go and the notion that you can't go home again (
Olsen also lost both of her parents during the making of the album), many of the songs look to new beginnings and learning to trust. Perhaps the closest thing to a musical smile on a restless set, "Big Time" matches lyrics like "Pull back the curtains, show me the sunshine" and "I'm loving you big time" with a midtempo seven-piece led by a confident drawl that makes use of
Olsen's multi-breath-way vocal technique. At the other end of the spectrum, wispy tearjerker "All the Flowers" amplifies its disappointment and gratitude with acoustic guitar, strings, piano, and harpsichord. Somewhere in between -- or triangulating -- is "Right Now," a song whose plaintive vibrato and acoustic strums morph into full-band country-rock and finally a dark, buzzy alt-rock. Rather than offering something for everyone,
Big Time wrangles complex, overwhelming emotions with a broad palette that's commanded by its lyrics and tormented vocal performances. ~ Marcy Donelson