Angel Olsen

Angel Olsen, an indie singer and songwriter whose vulnerable material emerges through a singular warble shaped by old-school country influences, saw her initial minimalist acoustic work blossom into richer, more theatrical arrangements over the course of her first several releases. Formerly a supporting vocalist for Bonnie "Prince" Billy, she launched her recording career with the echo-drenched solo indie-folk collection Strange Cacti in 2010 before assembling an alt-country power trio for her third effort, the 2014 Billboard 200 entry Burn Your Fire for No Witness. My Woman arrived two years afterward and climbed to a personal best of number 47 on that same tally. Retaining an introspective essence and an eerie atmosphere bolstered by deliberate reverberation, she enlisted a 14-piece orchestra for the 2019 album All Mirrors. Its successor, Whole New Mess in 2020, presented a reimagined solo rendition of that material alongside two newly composed tracks. Drawing from experiences of affection and grief connected to her public identification as queer, Big Time, her sixth studio album, appeared in 2022. Cosmic Waves, Vol. 1, issued in 2024, found her interpreting songs by five admired lesser-known songwriters, each of whom contributed one of their own original recordings to the project.

Raised in St. Louis, Missouri, Olsen began singing in local coffeehouses as a teenager and soon connected with a community of kindred musicians. Relocating to Chicago in 2006, she eventually collaborated with California artist Emmett Kelly within his Cairo Gang collective. After adding harmonies to Bonnie "Prince" Billy’s 2010 album The Wonder Show of the World and its 2011 follow-up Wolfroy Goes to Town, she issued her own collection of original acoustic-guitar pieces, Strange Cacti, that same year; the cassette later received a 12" reissue on Bathetic Records. Half Way Home, a lean 2012 set marked by restrained arrangements and a rustic sensibility poised between 1950s country vocalists and her indie peers, also appeared on that label.

Early in 2013 Olsen recruited drummer Josh Jaeger and bassist Stewart Bronaugh to enrich her previously bare sound, introducing a brooding garage-rock edge to her personal songs. Shortly after forming the trio she returned to the studio with producer John Congleton to capture her third album, Burn Your Fire for No Witness, which Jagjaguwar released in early 2014; the record earned strong critical notice and spent one week at number 71 on the Billboard 200.

Now based in Asheville, North Carolina, Olsen broadened her palette further on 2016’s My Woman, supporting the release with a six-piece touring ensemble. The album improved on its predecessor’s chart performance, reaching number 47 in the United States. Jagjaguwar followed in 2017 with Phases, a collection of rarities that included early demos and previously unreleased material from the My Woman sessions. In June 2019 she contributed a guest vocal to a track on Mark Ronson’s collaborative Late Night Feelings, which also featured Alicia Keys, Miley Cyrus, and Lykke Li. Produced by Congleton and featuring expansive chamber-orchestra charts by Jherek Bischoff and Ben Babbitt, her fifth studio album All Mirrors was issued by Jagjaguwar in October 2019 and peaked at number 52 on the Billboard 200.

The following year brought the lean Whole New Mess, Olsen’s first wholly solo album since Half Way Home. Recorded at the Unknown, a converted church in Anacortes, Washington, with assistance from producer Nicholas Wilbur and Mount Eerie’s Phil Elverum, it reconfigured nine selections from the emotionally weighty All Mirrors plus two originals, using only voice and guitar. In May 2021 the box set Song of the Lark and Other Far Memories collected All Mirrors and Whole New Mess together with additional Far Memory bonus material and a 40-page photo book. Later that month the John Congleton-produced duet “Like I Used To” paired her with Sharon Van Etten. A few months afterward she released the covers EP Aisles, which revisited 1980s hits originally popularized by Laura Branigan, Billy Idol, and Men Without Hats.

Early in 2022 Olsen issued a cover of Karen Dalton’s “Something on Your Mind,” followed in May by a version of Bob Dylan’s “One Too Many Mornings” for the Shining Girls soundtrack. Her next studio album, Big Time, emerged on Jagjaguwar in June 2022. Written amid the simultaneous discovery of new romance and ongoing heartache while she was coming out as queer, the record was co-produced by Olsen and Jonathan Wilson and blended earlier country references with the orchestral textures of All Mirrors. Although it reached number 121 on the Billboard 200, the set entered the Top Five of Billboard’s folk albums chart, the alternative Top Ten, and the rock and independent Top 20. In 2023 she released Forever Means, a four-song EP drawn from the Big Time sessions.

Olsen’s subsequent project emphasized musical discovery. Issued by Jagjaguwar in late 2024, Cosmic Waves, Vol. 1 comprised five intimate, self-recorded solo covers of cherished under-the-radar singer-songwriters; its remaining five tracks presented original songs by those same artists.