Angel Olsen

You might have thought that Angel Olsen was about to make a play for pop stardom, said Mark Richardson in The Wall Street Journal. My Woman, her acclaimed 2016 album, delivered enough hooks and sheen to suggest the indie-rock songstress was preparing a leap into the mainstream. “But All Mirrors is something else entirely—a challenging and intense art-pop offering unconcerned with trends.” The string arrangements that dominate the mix “seem to cover her voice in a dark mist” and prompt comparison to ambitiously orchestrated albums of Kate Bush. There’s “something almost jarring” about All Mirrors’ sonic scope, said Tom Breihan in Stereogum.com. Olsen and her collaborators have built “vast temples of sound” around knotty lyrics inspired by a nasty breakup. Still, Olsen’s “dazzling” voice remains the focus, and “she does incredible things with her range here.” In a single song, she may go from mystic incantations to “twisted-nerve yelps” and “almost-conversational melodic grumbles.” ■