Between the plaintively rootsy serenades of her 2012 debut, Half Way Home, and the assured reflections of her sixth and latest album, Big Time (released this summer), Angel Olsen has worked through all the feelings. The US singer-songwriter’s latest material expounds on love and grief, including the loss of both her parents; the elation of embracing her queer identity; the embers of past heartache; and the flare of hope on the horizon. Olsen’s lyrical candour and melodic hooks have snagged her a devoted following, and an excited crowd greeted her when she appeared on stage for the yearningly catchy opening number “Dream Thing”.
Olsen’s compositions exude an old-time quality, drawing from classic Americana influences as well as 1980s-laced pop choruses. There’s a fragility to her expressions, but they’re served with steely energy, and her material sounded even more full-blooded live. The beauty of her songs’ arrangements came through as well as the sentiments. Olsen’s excellent band were blissfully locked into the grooves, infusing tracks such as “Big Time” with warm strings (steel guitar, violin, cello) and lending growling bass and tender piano keys to “Ghost On”. The mood was slow-burning but the pace never flagged. The atmosphere, along with the stage backdrop of a verdant open-country panorama, somehow felt both intimate and expansive.
Much of the power lay in Olsen’s own, distinctively tremulous Midwestern croon. The 35-year-old indie heroine came across as unaffectedly charismatic: singing her heart out, bathed in cherry-coloured light. Her audience rapport was evident when she chatted between songs in a droll drawl. At one point she pretended she was about to play a “ditty” written that day while “walkin’ around London town”, before launching into the spikily anthemic older favourite “Shut Up Kiss Me (from her 2016 album, My Woman), with the crowd eagerly chanting along.
It would have been impossible to cram Olsen’s now extensive catalogue on to a single setlist — and it might have been unrealistic to hope for a blast of “Like I Used To” (Olsen’s splendid 2021 duet with Sharon Van Etten) — but she and her band covered plenty of ground, including a pleasingly playful “All the Good Times”. “It’s only cute for so long to be like, ‘I’m so sad’”, she announced cheerfully, before playing a solo guitar version of “Slowin’ Down Love” — a late-’70s tune by US folk-rocker Tucker Zimmerman.
Despite insisting that this would be the final number, only minutes later she returned with full ensemble, as well as American singer-songwriter Tomberlin (who had played an impressive support set earlier in the evening). The encore cover of “Without You” was a sweetly surreal endnote to a show that was part alt-country revue, part spaced-out reverie.
★★★★☆
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