Songfacts®:

• You could be forgiven for assuming "Like I Used To," the rousingly melancholic collaboration between Sharon Van Etten and Angel Olsen, was written specifically about the pandemic. It wasn't, but it might as well have been. The song drips with the kind of emotional exhaustion that feels all too familiar to those of us who spent a year and a half doomscrolling and forgetting how to small talk.
• "Like I Used To" was the first time Van Etten and Olsen worked together on an original song, though they had previously admired each other's work and had discussed collaborating in the past.
  
  "Sharon and I have very different approaches to music, but we share a lot in common too," Olsen told Uncut magazine. "Over the years I've just felt a very sisterly connection with her, creatively and personally."
  
  The idea of exploring those musical differences and that connection intrigued them both. Van Etten took the lead, sending the backbone melody and lyrics to Olsen in June 2020. "I was immediately lured in," she said. "We went back and forth with lyrics morphing over email."
• The production is by John Congleton, a man whose résumé also includes work with St. Vincent, Nelly Furtado, Death Cab for Cutie. He had already collaborated with Olsen on her albums Burn Your Fire for No Witness and All Mirrors, so he knew his way around her particular brand of lush, slow-burn intensity. Congleton had also worked closely with Van Etten as producer, engineer, and mixer on her 2019 Remind Me Tomorrow album.
• The track was released as a collaborative single on May 20, 2021. It peaked at #26 on the Billboard Adult Alternative Songs chart and also spent multiple weeks on alternative and indie-focused charts, reaching #1 on the New Alternative 40.
• The music video for "Like I Used To," directed by Kimberly Stuckwisch, features Sharon Van Etten and Angel Olsen in a 1970s-inspired setting, both sporting matching shag haircuts and vintage clothing. It was Stuckwisch's first time working with either artist, but the collaboration blossomed; she went on to direct Olsen's short film Big Time and further videos for the singer.
• Van Etten and Olsen debuted "Like I Used To" live on the June 8, 2021 The Tonight Show at the LA music venue Zebulon.