On November 10th, Angel Olsen will release Phases-a collection of B-sides, demos and unreleased tracks that have racked up over the span of her career. Some of the unreleased songs like “Special,” were ones that did not fit in with the other albums, but had a “special” quality to them. The album will include demos of songs from various moments of her career: from the mellow and moody acoustic odes on Strange Cacti, to the ornate and operatic vocals of Miracles of Love and Half Way Home to the glitzy et twangy rock and roll of Burn Your Fire For No Witness and My Woman.

Two previously unreleased songs were released in September: “Fly on the Wall,” and “Special.” “Special,” is a musing on failure and expectations. It is a slow build, with many layers added over the span of seven minutes. Olsen has just released the self-directed and self-edited video for “Special.” Like the stripped down authentic song, the video features Olsen on an average weekend. The stock video is a bit faded and blurry, but the message is clear: Olsen is not afraid to be herself. Olsen says she originally planned on shooting a grand video, but then decided to keep it simple:

“My friend came to visit me for a week and I had all these grand ideas about how to make another video. But it’s been a long year of touring and videos and pressure to keep on being important or interesting. So I woke up the next day and changed my mind, deciding it would be best to just capture the days we were hanging and to occasionally have the camera up. Those days were some of the hardest and also sweetest of the summer. We spent much of the time talking about the current state of affairs and how everyone has been going through tremendous change and having to make hard choices. Maybe it’s just this year, but it feels that we’re entering a new era, one that requires us to really pay more attention to the world and ourselves in it. What I realized is that going through a hard time and talking about it with friends makes you feel your friendships and who you are, and sometimes it takes a weird year to recognize what you still have.” 

The shape-shifter once again shows many sides of herself, and captures equally-charming moments of bliss and melancholy.

photo credit: Owen Ela