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John Van de Mergel

Sounds | Angel Olsen, Big Time


Net als de eerder verschenen lead single brengt Olsen ons met het titelnummer van haar nieuwe album helemaal terug in de sfeer van de jaren zeventig. Heel het nummer, inclusief het arrangement, klinkt zo retro dat het wel lijkt alsof ze in die periode leefde en muziek maakte. Prachtig!


Big Time verschijnt op 3 juni via Jagjaguwar/Konkurrent


Luister ook naar: All The Good Times

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“Big Time'' is a country song where Olsen fully embraces a sound she’s been flirting with throughout her career. A fearless love song, it follows and continues the optimism heard in lead single “All The Good Times.” “Guess I had to be losin’ to get here on time // And I’m living I’m loving I’ve loved long before // I’m loving you big time I’m loving you more,” Olsen sings, the warmth of her lyrics bolstered by winding pedal steel and her magnetic voice. The song’s cinematic video was directed once again by Kimberly Stuckwisch with choreography by Monika Felice Smith. Read below for the director’s statement. "For ‘Big Time,’ we set out to celebrate how humans identify and to subvert the old-fashioned gender binary and societal/internalized gender roles of the past through choreography, color, and wardrobe. To exist outside strict definitions is powerful and often not given a place in cinema. This was our chance to hold a positive reflection in the space and to shout to the world that you are more than who you are told to be. “‘Big Time’ is what happens when we do not express our true identity but find freedom when we step out of the shadows into our most authentic selves. In the first rotation, the lighting is drab, the clothes are monochromatic, the dance is monotonous . . . gender-conforming roles present. However, with each rotation, something magical happens, both our cast and Angel begin to come alive, to feel free. We see the clothes brighten, the dance heightens, and the bar that was once devoid of emotion can barely contain the joy bursting out of each individual. “I am proud to say that over 80% of our cast and 50% of our crew identified as nonbinary and non-gender conforming." - Kimberly Stuckwisch


Big Time was forged in a whiplash; the rare, fertile moments when both fresh grief and fresh love occur, when mourning and limerence heighten, complicate and explain each other. It’s an album about the expansive power of new love, written during the time Olsen was coming out as queer, and having her first experience of queer love and heartbreak. But this brightness and optimism is tempered by a profound and layered sense of loss; both of Olsen’s parents passed within weeks of each other, just after Olsen came out to them. Three weeks after her mother’s funeral she was in the studio, recording this incredibly wise and tender new album, Big Time.




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