Label: Perpetual Novice
Released: 14th February 2023
Caroline Polachek is one of the most fascinating pop stars in the world. She works music like no other, crafting decadent pop worlds that often feel impossible until you’re immersed in them.
Rooted in 2000s indie, her time as part of Chairlift flexed her pop chorus muscles, then she moved onto experimental soundscapes with two records under the monikers Ramona Lisa and her initials CEP. The two collided on 2019’s ‘Pang’, the introduction to Caroline Polachek as we know her now – it’s a glittering orchestral affair that talked of long-distance love and crushing in the digital age. Zooming in on her second album, ‘Desire, I Want To Turn Into You’, Caroline takes us closer.
Initially introducing the era back in 2021 with the single ‘Bunny Is A Rider’, Caroline brought forth a looser, more playful side of her persona. Taking cues from her poppiest hit at the time – the late-blooming viral ‘So Hot You’re Hurting My Feelings’ – and pulling them into more curious territory, ‘Bunny Is A Rider’ was less dreamy, more adventurous. And so the yearning on ‘Pang’ became a primal want: desire.
As with most of the records that have arrived since lockdowns lifted entirely, ‘Desire, I Want To Turn Into You’ is a celebration of togetherness, both in the overarching we-can-be-together-and-dance way that sees the record often veer into proper electronica, but also in the literal physical sense of togetherness; of sweaty bodies clashing beneath sheets and walks of shame personified in opening track ‘Welcome To My Island’.
It’s the cut she used to announce the album for a reason. Although eventual closer ‘Billions’ – a glitchy, hypnotic track laced with a children’s choir that doesn’t tire out its five-minute run time – and ‘Sunset’ – the shimmering flamenco track that brings some of the record’s best lyrics – came long before (they were previewed on tour in 2021 and released as singles), it’s the desperate euphoria of ‘Welcome To My Island’ that introduces the bratty character Caroline would play on this record, and solidified that this would be her poppiest record without losing any of the quirks that put her truly in a league of her own.
‘Pretty In Possible’ employs a Massive Attack style breakbeat and meandering pop melodies but is deliberately chorusless. When those UK drum ’n’ bass beats return on ‘I Believe’, they’re amped up with vibrant synths and house piano, the patience paying off in a cathartic final chorus release. Those same beats continue into ‘Desire…’s only feature, ‘Fly To You’ with Grimes and Dido, which, on paper, sounds like it should be bonkers. In reality, Caroline acts as a bridge between the pair; Dido, a long-time idol for CP with certain vocal similarities, and Grimes, an experimental and unexpected pop crossover act.
Between the airy 2000s pop guitars of ‘Blood and Butter’ comes a bagpipe solo, and a use of the word ‘Wikipediated’ to describe her lover. Some of her most sincere tracks end up being the most nonsensical; are ‘Hopedrunk’ or ‘Everasking’ even real words? It neither matters nor stops it from being the most delicate and tender one here.
While Caroline Polachek’s music is often described as otherworldly, she still deals primarily in human emotion. On ‘Desire, I Want To Turn Into You’, she offers up hope, catharsis and real euphoria. A record of love in its initial ravenous infatuated rumblings, and occasionally when it erupts into something bigger.
