Angel Olsen - Big Time

Released: 03/06/22

I can't say that I'm sorry / When I don't feel so wrong anymore. / I can't tell you I'm tryin' / When there's nothin' left here to try for. On hearing the poetic, poignant opening lines of All the Good Times, the first track from Angel Olsen's much-anticipated follow up to 2019's All Mirrors, I instantly thought, Emmylou Harris, Linda Rondstadt, Dusty ¦. Olsen's debut album, Burn Your Fire For No Witness,made it clear that the St. Louis native was a remarkable singer, but on album number four, on the tracks that are divested of the reverb and various effects that adorned her voice on the previous albums, the full weight of her prodigious talent is finally set free.

There are myriad technically gifted singers, but only a precious few have that ineffable quality that makes them truly great, endowed with a voice that seemingly has a direct line to our deepest emotions. Olsen is undoubtedly a member of this rarefied club. Much of the terrific music on Big Time unabashedly embraces pure country (no alt' qualifier needed), crucially giving just the right amount of space for Olsen's voice to work its magic. Phenomenal stuff.