Caroline Polachek - Desire, I Want To Turn Into You

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’.