(2021) Angel Olsen - Song of the Lark and Other Far Memories


Review:
Even before the release of 2019’s Billboard 200-charting All Mirrors, Angel Olsen revealed that it had been originally intended as a double album consisting of a stark solo version and elaborately orchestrated counterpoint. When she heard the string arrangements by Jherek Bischoff and Ben Babbitt, she instead went all in on the orchestrated version, now known as All Mirrors. Recognizing the raw, haunting quality of the, by all accounts, very personal solo edition, however (it was the first of the two to be recorded), Olsen followed it with Whole New Mess in 2020. A year later, the vinyl box set Song of the Lark and Other Far Memories collects both albums, and set of related bonus tracks. Of most interest to fans already familiar with the sister albums will be the six bonus recordings, gathered here under the album heading Far Memory. A pair of remixes by Johnny Jewel (“All Mirrors”) and Mark Ronson (“New Love Cassette”) kick off the bonus portion, both effectively carrying Olsen’s pining vocals onto the dancefloor. Joining the remixes are a couple of alternate takes: “It’s Every Season (Whole New Mess),” an acoustic guitar-and-horns version featuring Bright Eyes’ Nate Walcott (trumpet, horn arrangement) that was recorded during the All Mirrors sessions, and “Alive and Dying (Waving, Smiling),” which relies on strings instead of the official version’s (more poignant) arpeggiated guitar. The highlight of Far Memory is “More Than This,” a mournful solo version of the Roxy Music classic that Olsen not only makes her own but seems to extemporaneously purge from somewhere deep within. Originally offered as an exclusive 7″ that accompanied a limited color pressing of Whole New Mess, it’s joined here by flip-side “Smaller,” a defiant one-minute solo original. If not worth potentially repurchasing multiple albums to obtain, the latter two songs merit a broader audience than the collectors targeted by the package.





Tracklist:
Disc 1
1. Lark
2. All Mirrors
3. Too Easy
4. New Love Cassette
5. Spring
6. What It Is
7. Impasse
8. Tonight
9. Summer
10. Endgame
11. Chance

Disc 2
01. Whole New Mess
02. Too Easy (Bigger Than Us)
03. (New Love) Cassette
04. (We Are All Mirrors)
05. (Summer Song)
06. Waving, Smiling
07. Tonight (Without You)
08. Lark Song
09. Impasse (Workin’ For The Name)
10. Chance (Forever Love)
11. What It Is (What It Is)

Disc 3
01. All Mirrors (Johnny Jewel Remix)
02. New Love Cassette (Mark Ronson Remix)
03. Smaller
04. It’s Every Season (Whole New Mess)
05. Alive And Dying (Waving, Smiling)
06. More Than This


Media Report:
Genre: indie-folk
Format: FLAC
Format/Info: Free Lossless Audio Codec, 16-bit PCM
Bit rate mode: Variable
Channel(s): 2 channels
Sampling rate: 44.1 KHz
Bit depth: 16 bits