On Angel Olsen’s fifth album release, following up last year’s All Mirrors, the North Carolina based artist strips down her tracks from the 2019 album and breathes a new, more intimate light into the pieces. Production on the album is reminiscent of 70s psychedelia thanks to sustained notes and reverb. The whole album manages to manufacture the distant spacious sound of playing a vinyl, often feeling nostalgic for distant places and memories. This could be thanks to recording in the century old church turned recording studio, The Unknown, Olsen and her head engineer, Micheal Harris, found in the small town of Ancacortes, Washington. A Whole New Mess works through the emotional fallout of a devastating breakup for Olsen, with lyrics pondering growing apart and rebuilding again. The misty mornings and isolating walls of The Unknown and Olsen’s own heartbreak echo in every reverb-laden song of A Whole New Mess. 

By Emma Chekroun