If you’ve never considered the cosmic implications of Men Without Hats’ “Safety Dance,” then Angel Olsen would like to take you on a journey. Her psychedelic cover appears on the Aisles EP, an upcoming compilation of 1980s hits with some unexpected twists.
Like she did for previous single “Gloria,” Olsen slows a well-known song down to a dirge. She locates the menace underneath “Safety Dance,” transforming the toe-tapping original into a meditation on whether we actually want to dance, and if any of these people are our friends, anyway.
“I felt this song could be reinterpreted to be about the time of quarantine and the fear of being around anyone or having too much fun,” Olsen said in a statement. “It made me wonder, is it safe to laugh or dance or be free of it all for just a moment?” Check out her cover of “Safety Dance” below.
The Aisles EP drops August 20th digitally and September 24th in physical editions, and pre-orders are ongoing. It’s the follow-up to Olsen’s 2021 box set Song of the Lark and Other Far Memories, which included her 2019 album All Mirrors and 2020’s Whole New Mess. In May, she teamed up with Sharon Van Etten for the duet, “Like I Used To.”