Album Review: Deep Reflections Seen Through 'All Mirrors'

Angel Olsen’s latest release, All Mirrors, finds a way to be her most bold and atmospheric body of work, while also being her deepest, most introspective lyrical showcase.

Written by Roberto Soto

Photo courtesy of Ashley Connor and Jagjaguwar Recordings

Written mostly while on tour for her last album, MY WOMAN, Angel Olsen reinvents her sound once again on All Mirrors. This time, she is less focused on the glorious ‘60s-rock and roll sound that influenced her greatly, but more so on constructing a world with a new set of old tools: an orchestra. Long gone are the lo-fi days of Strange Cacti (2011), as we are slowly encapsulated in the limbs past love.

The album opener, “Lark” melds Olsen’s classic vulnerable lyrics about grieving a love lost with her soaring vocals and chilling string arrangements for six straight minutes:

To forget you is to hide 

There  is still so much left to recover

If  only we could start again

Pretending we don't know each other

“Lark” holds you tight within its grip until the final minute bangs with lively drums, then sulks away with searing violins. The song itself is a fantastic journey through heartbreak, and it is only the beginning of the album.

Following is the title track and lead single, “All Mirrors,” which blends the ‘60s-pop influence we heard in MY WOMAN with an ‘80s-synth night-time jam and ‘20s-style orchestra. The song, much like the whole album, is a dynamic force of supernature: hauntingly grounded and heart wrenching. If you were looking for your Sad Girl Fall album, Olsen may have something for you.

Sorrow, however, is not the only theme, as heard through the more lovelorn, “Too Easy,” “Spring,” and “New Love Cassette,” as Olsen sings of deep devotion to her lover. “Too Easy” kicks off like an ‘80s-love ballad, quickly thumping into a groovy outro, while “Spring” feels just as its title may suggest: a breezy, trippy walk through the brightest picketed-fenced neighborhood with your newlywed partner. The strings’ solo of “New Love Cassette” is bubbly and jarring at once, perfectly summarizing the feelings of being a vehicle of love.

On “What It Is,” Olsen has more fun with self-analysis of creating a “love” with someone that’s more of a time filler then a heart stopper. She told Apple Music:

“The hardest thing to admit to yourself is that you just want to fill a void with someone and they’re filling a void with you. Sometimes we’re just doing that when we think we’re in love.”

She holds back no punches, as she laments, “You just wanted to forget / That your heart was full of shit.” A perpetually mature and honest writer, Olsen shows us a new chapter of her life.

Photo courtesy of Jagjaguwar Recordings

“Impasse” is purely epic, literally in its production and figuratively in lyrical content, as it is not about love or romantic relationships, but actually, as Olsen describes it, “specifically about being a writer and a musician and people coming to conclusions about what they think that is for me and how I’ve changed because of it.”

Olsen pens each and every lyric herself, making the personal journey of each song all the more heartbreaking. In this track, we hear an artist who wants so badly to be taken seriously as a human.

In “Endgame,” the sound swings to a sexy saxophone through the melody, a clear indication of the jazz influence Olsen has on this album. The lyrics themselves plead. There is a constant theme of longing and want in this album, but not for unattainable objects; Olsen solely requests understanding, communication, and honesty, from both partners and herself.

“Tonight” shows growth following a breakup, acceptance of and joy found within oneself. Olsen’s soft vocals are complemented by a swaying orchestra that feel like trees rustling at dusk. 

Like how it's all coming clear

All the words that I hear

Like how I’m not in fear

Without you

Similarly, the album closes with “Chance,” a tune that is as classic as it is refreshingly new, as Olsen pleads to forget forever and work on making the now beautiful and healthy. She croons, “Forever's just so far / Why don't you say you're with me now / With all of your heart?” There’s nothing left to do but think: why do we worry so much about the unforeseeable future when we can live, enjoy, and improve our now?

Olsen closes out All Mirrors with a sense of clarity and joy for the future. A big leap sonically, Angel Olsen proves once again that you cannot have her pegged as a one-trick pony. She is as brilliant as she is human.

As she told Apple Music, “Just because I can articulate it in song doesn't mean I actually have the agency or experiences of facilitating it in my own life… a lot of these things are just self-realizations that I put into song and want to share with people.”

Ultimately on All Mirrors, Olsen captures her personal reflections in a collection that we can all see a bit of ourselves in.