Angel Olsen ‘Hi-Five’ Video Pays Homage To Vintage Female TV Performances

Some say today's female pop performances are over-the-top glitzy and sometimes way too much for TV. But those same criticisms applied in the past, and Angel Olsen's latest music video, 'Hi-Five,' takes us back.

Sure, pop stars of the '60s and '70s were more covered up, and they didn't engage in hip-hop choreography or bring random collaborators onto the stage. But as Olsen shows us, they did get grandiose in their own crazy ways.

"They were always so wild and psychedelic and humorous from afar," Olsen says in a press release. "The more you watch them, the more wooden and awkward the performances become. There is a certain loneliness captured. The song 'Hi-Five' seems to contain the same sort of duality."

In the video, directed by frequent Angel collaborator Zia Anger, Olsen does funny hand movements and moves around a cluttered stage that comes complete with a disco ball. The fact she does it all with a straight face sort of conveys the sadness in the song while proving that performances from the past really didn't have much to do with the song at all.

The lo-fi quality to the film, as well as the lighting and shadows that are added in, bring a vintage quality that makes one feel they should be watching it on a projection screen rather than on a TV or computer monitor.

'Hi-Five' is the second single off of Olsen's LP 'Burn You Fire for No Witness,' out on Feb. 18. Aside from the release of her album, she is also hitting the road for her a headlining tour starting on the night of her album release in Charlottesville, Va., and running through May. Along the way, she'll hit a string of U.S. cities, including Austin for SXSW, and also head to Europe.