Angel Olsen is back with a new collection of soul-enrapturing ballads with the release of her latest EP Forever Means. She will also be heading on tour this fall with a stop at Hollywood Forever Cemetery in Los Angeles on Aug. 10 which will no doubt be an out-of-this-world, hauntingly beautiful experience. The new collection comes on the heels of Olsen’s last album Big Time and her ethereally atmospheric 80’s pop cover EP Aisles.
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Sparse but still glistening with grandiose emotion, the four songs on Forever Means hone in on the sheer depths of the soul that radiate from Olsen’s dulcet vocals. Its slow-burning opening song “Nothing’s Free” traverses a lilting piano melody that’s made all the more heartbreaking by the gloaming resonance of her words and a particularly somber saxophone.
On its weepingly melancholic title track “Forever Means,” Olsen muses over the meaning of forever in the face of love, heartache, and all the uncertainty in between. Her coos warbling warmly against the solitary growth of a few strummed tones: “Forever means always looking / Forever means trying to see / Forever means saying what’s on your mind / Forever means make sure, take your time.”
“Time Bandits” opens up the minimalism of the EPs songwriting into this glowingly lovelorn plea. “I’m having a hard time not falling in love with / The heart of a moment, the heart of a moment,” she sings. With her piercingly clarion cries, Olsen cuts right to the desperation and desire to truly savor the moments we share with the ones we love, to be intentionally and purposefully present always.
A shadow of regret floats over many of the songs on the EP but it comes out in full force and deliriously mournful on its last track “Holding On.” Untamed it bursts out of the song’s surge of earnest percussion and jutting riffs as Olsen demandingly inquires: “How long have you been standing there? / Tell me, how much did you see?” As the driving melody grows the song both wrestles and mirrors much of the intimacy and openness that she often espouses so viscerally in her music. One that crashes and clamors in the finale as Olsen struggles with regret at not being able to see the ways in which her love gave a radiance to her life that is now long gone.
See Angel Olsen at Hollywood Forever Cemetery in Los Angeles on Aug. 10. See a full list of tour dates below!
Visit Angel Olsen on their website, Twitter, and Instagram to stay updated on new releases and tour announcements.
Angel Olsen tour
May 3 – Morrison, CO – Red Rock Amphitheatre *
May 4 – Morrison, CO – Red Rock Amphitheatre *
June 7 – Galzignano Terme (PD), IT – Anfiteatro del Venda &
June 9 – Jesi (AN), IT – Teatro Pergolesi &
June 10 – Castiglione del Lago (PG), IT – Rocca Medievale &
June 12 – Milano, IT – Giardino della Triennale &
July 7 – Madrid, ES – Mad Cool Festival
July 8 – Lisbon, PT – Nos Alive Festival
August 5 – Saint Charles, IA – Hinterland Music Festival
August 10 – Los Angeles, CA – Hollywood Forever Cemetery
August 19 – Queens, NY – Forest Hills Stadium >
August 25 – London, UK- All Points East Festival
August 27 – Paris, FR – Rock En Seine
August 29 – Leeds, UK – Leeds Irish Centre
August 30 – Birmingham, UK – The Mill
August 31- Sept 3 – Salisbury, UK – End of the Road
Oct 17 San Diego, CA Humphrey’s Concerts By The Bay +
Oct 18 Garden Grove, CA Garden Amphitheatre +
Oct 19 San Francisco, CA The Regency Ballroom +
Oct 20 San Francisco, CA The Regency Ballroom ^
Oct 24 Portland, OR Revolution Hall ^
Oct 25 Portland, OR Revolution Hall #
Oct 26 Seattle, WA Neptune Theatre #
Oct 27 Seattle, WA Neptune Theatre ^
Oct 28 Seattle, WA Neptune Theatre @
Nov 29 Minneapolis, MN First Avenue %
Nov 30 Milwaukee, WI Turner Hall Ballroom ^
Dec 1 Chicago, IL Thalia Hall ^
Dec 2 Chicago, IL Thalia Hall =
Dec 3 Chicago, IL Thalia Hall !
Dec 5 Louisville, KY Headliners Music Hall !
Dec 6 Nashville, TN Brooklyn Bowl !
Dec 7 Birmingham, AL Saturn ~
Dec 8 Athens, GA 40 Watt Club ~
Dec 9 Saxapahaw, NC Haw River Ballroom ~
* w/ Jason Isbell
& w/ Maxim Ludwig
> with The Strokes
+ with King Tuff
^ with Kara Jackson
# with Allegra Krieger
= with Natural Information Society
@ with Led To Sea
% with Nona Invie
! with Joanna Sternberg
~ with Sluice
Words: Steven Ward
Listen to Forever Means the new EP from Angel Olsen below!
