Angel Olsen has released “Lark,” the second single from her upcoming fourth album All Mirrors. The song is an emotionally raw, epic monologue in musical form, filled out by producer John Congleton’s chamber orchestra; in the muted middle section of the song, the strings breaks away from the rest of the band for a beautiful and psychedelic diversion as Olsen moves into a subtler moment of self-reflection.
It’s a pretty staggering piece of music, and an intense and stark visual treatment from director Ashley Connor. The video features Olsen out in nature, experiencing all four of the elements, after walking out on a dysfunctional relationship. “Lark” has a cathartic, reverb-drenched chorus that kind of sounds like it is being shouted from a mountaintop, and in the video, Olsen literally does shout it from a mountaintop. Can you tell that I like the song and video? I do.
In a press statement, Olsen revealed that the song “took many years to finish. The disjointed feelings and verses of this song began to make sense as a way for me to exercise a kind of journey through grieving, a kind of personal struggle. The message of the song developed at first from an argument I once had with someone about trust and support. Later, I pulled from recurring themes in my life as a musician and as a human that dreams for a living.”
Olsen released the title track from All Mirrors in July, which also came complete with a video directed by Connor and starring Olsen. The album, which follows up 2016’s My Woman, is due out on October 4 on Jagjaguwar. Watch the stunning clip for “Lark” below.
