Like I Used To

“Like I Used To” is the 2021 single from American singer-songwriters Sharon Van Etten and Angel Olsen, marking their first collaboration together.

The heartland rock song was written by.both Van Etten and Olsen, with production done by John Congleton. Lyrically, the track discusses old habits and habits they stopped but want to repeat in the present day. The track’s main emotion is nostalgia, combined with a longing for another version of themselves. Both singers took to Facebook to state their excitement about the collaboration and the song:

“I have loved Angel Olsen’s music for a long time. I have been to her shows and cried in the audience […] I never thought I would get the courage to send her an unfinished song and ask her to do a duet with me and here we are. Thank you, Angel, for calling my bluff and lifting me up, and making this song better than it ever could have been.”

– Sharon Van Etten

“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 but in 2020 she approached me to work on a song together […] The song reminded me immediately of getting back to where I started […] a time that remains pure and real in my heart and important for me to remember and check in with as I go forward in this life.”

– Ashley Olsen

The music video for “Like I Used To” was released via Van Etten’s YouTube channel on the 20th May 2021 and was directed by Kimberly Stuckwisch. Filmed around Los Angeles and Joshua Tree, the video shows both artists singing along to the song in a car, a house and eventually on a stage, while they look at the camera wistfully in some shots. As of late February 2022, the video had a total of 1.2 million views and 34 thousand likes.

Read the lyrics to “Like I Used To” here.

*All information accurate at the time of publishing.