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Oct 07, 2020 By Christopher Roberts Photography by Josh Slifee Angel Olsen

Angel Olsen released a new album, Whole New Mess, in August via Jagjaguwar. Now she has done a Tiny Desk (Home) Concert for NPR Music, performing four songs remotely. She did “Whole New Mess,” “What It Is (What It Is),” and “Waving, Smiling” from the new album, as well as “Iota” from 2014’s Burn Your Fire For No Witness. Watch the session below.

Stream Whole New Mess here and read our review of the album here.

Whole New Mess mainly features stripped down versions of the songs found on last year’s acclaimed All Mirrors album, but also features two new songs (“Whole New Mess” and “Waving, Smiling”). While Whole New Mess was recorded before All Mirrors, these are not demos for that album; Olsen purposefully recorded two versions of these songs, always intending to release them separately.

Previously Olsen shared its first single, title track “Whole New Mess,” via a video for it. “Whole New Mess” was one of our Songs of the Week. At the end of July, Olsen performed “Whole New Mess” on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon. Then she shared the album’s second single, “Waving, Smiling,” which was also one of our Songs of the Week. She also shared a video of her performing the song live from Asheville’s Masonic Temple.

With the aid of audio engineer Michael Harris, Olsen went to a studio in the small town of Anacortes, Washington called The Unknown, in search of a space where, as she puts it in a press release, “vulnerability exists.” The Unknown is a former Catholic church converted by Mount Eerie’s Phil Elverum and producer Nicholas Wilbur. “I hadn’t been to The Unknown, but I knew about its energy. I wanted to go sit with the material and be with it in a way that felt like a residency,” Olsen said in a previous press release. “I didn’t need a lot, since it was just me and a guitar. But I wanted someone else there to hold me accountable for trying different things.”

All Mirrors was our #1 Album of 2019. It also our Album of the Week and we previously posted a rave 9/10 review of the album.

Olsen also recently teamed up with Emile Mosseri for a cover of Bobby Vinton’s “Mr. Lonely,” from Mosseri’s soundtrack to the new Miranda July film Kajillionaire.

Also, don’t forget that Olsen was on the cover of our last print issue, the My Favorite Album Issue (you can still buy a copy directly from us here).

Also read our 2016 interview with Olsen.

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