EP Review Angel Olsen - Aisles

If the lofty spirit of ‘carpe diem’ hasn’t caught on in recent times, then its lowbrow sibling, ‘fuck it, why not’ definitely has. ‘Aisles’ is a perfect example of this: a handful of songs Angel Olsen remembers from shopping trips past (hence the title), ‘80s classics reimagined by the songwriter into her own take on the decade’s sound. A slow take on Laura Branigan’s ‘Gloria’; an eerie version of Men At Work’s ‘Safety Dance’; a suitably sinister ‘If You Leave’, originally released by OMD. The jewel in the crown, though, is ‘Forever Young’, Angel’s take delightfully tinged with the melancholy nature of nostalgia. For an artist usually so meticulous with her vision, that these are able to sound so airy, almost frivolous - and, indeed, they were recorded back in 2020 as more of a exercise than intended for release - makes this curio of an EP all the more engaging.