Lindsay Coulson | Writer
February 24, 2023
Caroline Polachek is a name that any artist in the indie scene knows and respects. As of February 14, 2023, Polachek has a new, sophomore album. It’s called Desire, I Want To Turn Into You and it’s precisely what you’d think it’s about: desire. Even though it’s only been out for a week, it’s already been rated an 8.7/10 by Pitchfork, a 4/5 by The Guardian, and a 95/100 by Metacritic. The raving reviews are right on the money.
The album opens with Caroline screaming/singing/chanting on “Welcome to My Island.” Halfway through the song, she starts a Wet Leg style rap that really caught my attention. Not to mention the guitar solo that makes the pop song feel more pop-rock. Next on the album is “Pretty In Possible.” Caroline sings “Potential is the drug you never knew you never tried” and “spinning out, yeah I respect that.” Third, is “Bunny Is a Rider,” the first original single that she had released since her 2019 album Pang. Other noteworthy songs on the album are “Fly to You” with the iconic Grimes and Dido featuring. Plus “Sunset,” a flamenco-inspired song with the love-aching lines, “so many stories we were told about a safety net/But when I look for it, it’s just a hand that’s holding mine.”
The thing that stands out the most to me about this album is the production. It is unique and outstanding. Caroline Polachek actually co-produced the album with other producers including Danny L Harle, Dan Nigro, Jim-E Stack, Sega Bodega, and Ariel Rechtshaid.
The album’s cover shows Polachek on all fours crawling to her sandy paradise on the opposite side of the dirty subway. The album is a reference to her “island” and her crawling on her hands and knees must represent the ravenous energy of her new songs.
This might be Polachek’s second solo album, but she is no rookie to the game. She began in the music industry with a band called Chairlift, formed with Aaron Pfenning. Polachek went on to create three albums with this group before their disbanding in 2016. Before making music under her own name, Polachek released two self-produced albums. One under Ramona Lisa with the album Arcadia and another under CEP titled Drawing the Target Around the Arrow. She also co-wrote and co-produced the song “No Angel,” which ended up being on Beyonce’s self-titled record. In 2019, Caroline Polachek finally started releasing music under her own name. In October she released Pang, her debut album that received critical acclaim and showed up on many top albums/songs of the year lists. It would be no surprise if Desire, I Want To Turn Into You does the same in 2023.
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