If you need a slow warm-up before you can fully emerge for what we pray is one hell of a Hot Girl Summer, Angel Olsen and Sharon Van Etten have you covered with the pensive video for their new song, “Like I Used To,” released on Thursday. “Sleepin’ in late like I used to / Crossing my fingers like I used to / Waiting inside like I used to / Avoiding big crowds like I used to,” the pair declare. “Lighting one up like I used to / Dancing all alone like I used to / Giving it up like I used to / Falling in love like I used to.” Yup, we all have a lot of catching up to do in 2021.
Said Van Etten about the song in the track’s press release, “Even though we weren’t super close, I always felt supported by Angel and considered her a peer in this weird world of touring. We highway high-fived many times along the way … I finally got the courage in June of 2020 to reach out to see if she would want to sing together. I got greedy and quickly sent her a track I have been working on.”
Added Olsen, “I’ve met with Sharon here and there throughout the years and have always felt too shy to ask her what she’s been up to or working on. The song reminded me immediately of getting back to where I started, before music was expected of me, or much was expected of me, a time that remains pure and real in my heart.”
So go ahead. Enjoy the beautiful sunshine of Joshua Tree, allow yourself to admit there are plenty of perfectly valid new denim options to replace your skinny jeans, and finally get yourself that shag you’ve wanted for the last year and change. And really, don’t feel bad about avoiding big crowds. They weren’t great before.
