Forever Means

Last year’s Big Time brought Angel Olsen to a deeper, truer sense 
of self than ever before. Borne from the twin stars of grief and love, 
the album delivered beautiful sense of certainty, the sure-footed sound 
of an artist fully, finally at home with herself. But within that wisdom 
comes the realization that there is no finish line, no destination or static 
end point to life while you’re living it, and Forever Means collects songs 
from the Big Time sessions that hold this common theme. They are, in 
Olsen’s words, “in search of something else.”
 “I was somewhere traveling,” says Olsen, “stopped for a few days and 
wandering the city, and I was thinking ‘what does ‘forever’ really mean? 
What are the things I’m seeking in friendship or love, and how can 
‘forever’ be attainable if we’re always changing?’” Sitting with the reality 
of that entropy, Olsen realized “maybe the secret to ongoing love is to 
embrace change as part of love itself, that forever must have something 
to do with playing, looking, constantly searching things out for yourself, 
never letting yourself think you’re finished learning or exploring.”
 ‘Forever’”, says Olsen, “remains curious while trying also to be kind 
and honest.”
 All this packs into the four precious songs that comprise Forever 
Means, songs from Olsen’s roads traveled and the ones ahead. 
“Nothing’s free / like breaking free” Olsen sings, comfortable with the 
costs of her clarity, her heart and voice fixed on the present, the future, 
the not-yet-known and the beautifully unknowable.