The new offering is a reimagined take on “Waving, Smiling,” one of the few new original songs she included in Whole New Mess. The original version of the track was minimalistic, focusing on Olsen’s voice and her guitar. But this time around, she’s back by a full orchestra, with Jherek Bischoff’s string arrangements turning the song into something even more stunning, with a fuller sound that complements Olsen’s voice perfectly and the goosebump-inducing melody even more than the original.
“This song is all about chapters closing, and learning to let go of things I can’t understand,” Olsen says in a statement released to The A.V. Club. “It’s very me—I will always nosedive into love, and suffering can definitely come with that. When I hear this version the strings really bring the song to its necessary bittersweet boiling point.”
Far Memory also includes a Johnny Jewel remix of “All Mirrors,” a Mark Ronson remix of “New Love Cassette,” and versions of “More Than This” and “Smaller.”
This new bonus LP is not the only reason Olsen is being celebrated by fans right now. The singer received an outpouring of support on social media last week after announcing that she’s gay, captioning a picture of her partner Beau Thibodeaux with the message “my beau, I’m gay.” To make sure the point got across, Olsen added a smiley photo of herself to her Instagram story and captioned it “I’m gay!!!!!!!!!!!” That seems a rare instance where that many exclamation points is acceptable.
