Angel Olsen Shares “Lark,” Another Stunning Single off All Mirrors

The great Angel Olsen has shared another stellar single and video from her forthcoming album All Mirrors, out Oct. 4 on Jagjaguwar. Album opener “Lark” elaborates on the statement Olsen made with All Mirrors’ lead single and title track, a statement we would summarize as, “You simply cannot miss this album.”

“Lark” is stunning in its dynamism, opening in the broken-hearted calm before a cathartic storm of overwhelming strings, thundering drums and Olsen’s ever-emotive voice. The singer-songwriter weaves in and out of numerous distinct phases across the song’s six minutes and change, each of them mesmerizing—she looks back on a painful end while bound for a new beginning, singing, “Hiding out inside my head, it’s me again, it’s no surprise I’m on my own now / Every time I turn to you, I see the past, it’s all that lasts and all I know how.” A cinematic, Ashley Connor-directed video further enhances the song’s grandeur: Olsen, storming out of a fight with her partner, walks out of town and into the wilderness, finding absolution in the woods and waters of North Carolina’s Asheville and Outer Banks, recalling the life she’s leaving behind and soldiering onward into the next, feeling every step forward.

“‘Lark’ is a song that 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,” Olsen explains in a statement. “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. It’s easy to promise the world to those we love, but what about when our dreams change and values split?”

“‘Lark’ is the cathartic release we all ask for but so rarely get, an anthem to scream on the tops of hills or in the back of a truck or just in the privacy of our own home,” says Connor. “We cried on beaches, we broke bones, got wet, rolled in the grass, danced around a fire with friends and gave each other a lot of hugs—an apt exploration of every broken heart we’ve ever had.”

Olsen explains that All Mirrors is “about owning up to your darkest side, finding the capacity for new love and trusting change.” It’s easy to see why “Lark” opens the album, as it exemplifies those timeless ideas.

Don’t miss the “Lark” video below.