It wasn’t long after Angel Olsen debuted her towering album All Mirrors that the singer returned to share Whole New Mess, a collection of demos that would eventually become her All Mirrors LP. Whole New Mess offers a completely different look at the songs, revealing Olsen’s raw, post-breakup blues through a simple acoustic guitar and her haunting vocals. Bringing her music to NPR’s Tiny Desk concert series, Olsen gives a peaceful performance of four of her songs.
Seated beneath an all-encompassing canopy of trees, Olsen kicks off her set with her Whole New Mess title track, one of two songs on the record which doesn’t have an All Mirrors counterpart. Next, Olsen moves into a rendition of her 2014 track “Iota,” which she says is about “wishing that all the world could see something for what it is at the same time.” Closing out the set, Olsen shares the soulful tracks “What It Is (What It Is)” and “Waving, Smiling.”
In a statement about “Waving, Smiling” ahead of her Tiny Desk appearance, Olsen said: “‘Waving, Smiling’ in my head is the last scene, a slow-motion realization of love not lost but at peace somewhere within myself. It’s the bittersweet end of a chapter of my life – it is the final acceptance that despite coming to an end all of that time was not lost or wasted.”
Watch Angel Olsen’s NPR Tiny Desk concert above and revisit our review of her recent album Whole New Mess here.