Angel Olsen today unveils the title track and its gorgeous video from her new album, Big Time.
Big Time is a country song where Olsen says she fully embraces a sound she’s been flirting with throughout her career. A fearless love song, it follows and continues the optimism heard in lead single All The Good Times.
The song’s cinematic video was directed once again by Kimberly Stuckwisch with choreography by Monika Felice Smith.
“For Big Time, we set out to celebrate how humans identify and to subvert the old-fashioned gender binary and societal/internalized gender roles of the past through choreography, colour, and wardrobe. To exist outside strict definitions is powerful and often not given a place in cinema. This was our chance to hold a positive reflection in the space and to shout to the world that you are more than who you are told to be,” Stuckwisch said.
“Big Time is what happens when we do not express our true identity but find freedom when we step out of the shadows into our most authentic selves. In the first rotation, the lighting is drab, the clothes are monochromatic, the dance is monotonous . . . gender-conforming roles present.”
“However, with each rotation, something magical happens, both our cast and Angel begin to come alive, to feel free. We see the clothes brighten, the dance heightens, and the bar that was once devoid of emotion can barely contain the joy bursting out of each individual.” Stuckwisch continued.
“I am proud to say that over 80% of our cast and 50% of our crew identified as nonbinary and non-gender conforming.”
Big Time was forged in a whiplash; the rare, fertile moments when both fresh grief and fresh love occur, when mourning and limerence heighten, complicate and explain each other.
It’s an album about the expansive power of new love, written during the time Olsen was coming out as queer, and having her first experience of queer love and heartbreak.
Big Time is due for release on June 3.
Photo: Angela Ricciardi
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