Desire, I Want To Turn Into You - Caroline Polachek: Review
Caroline Polachek
is the former frontwoman for indie pop band Chairlift who changed her sights on a more synthetic style of pop music as a solo artist which featured a number of collaborations with artists from around the PC Music landscape. Desire is Polachek's fourth solo album thought technically only her second under her own name in this phase of her career, following 2019's critical darling Pang. PC Music affiliate Danny L Harle, who worked on much of that album, returns on production for most of the songs on Desire.
Review by Lav:
Not reviewing Pang was one of my biggest mistakes as a budding music critic the year it came out. The reasons I ultimately didn't cover it is that I thought it was just okay and in a sea of similarly monotonous coverage I felt like I didn't have much to add. In the years since Polachek has become a massive critical darling and frequent collaborator of a number of other artists whose music I really enjoy. So after liking some of the singles from this album a lot, I wasn't gonna hesitate to put my thoughts out there.
This album had five singles and though it took me a while to come around on some of them, I now think they're all great. The two that came easiest to me are the lead single and the opening track. Welcome To My Island is the opener and de facto title track that presents the lush instrumentation contrasted with electronic beats which is one of the album's defining motifs. It's a great way to start things off. I also still love Bunny Is A Rider which landed on my 2021 Singles Of The Year list. I still love it now just as much as I did then.
Sunset and Blood And Butter were the two singles that took me some time to come around two, but now I love them both. Sunset grew on me slowly and I like that it represents a stylistic shift on the album that I really appreciate. More than anything I just think Caroline's vocals throughout are absolutely encapsulating. I'll be the first person to admit I missed on my initial judgment of Blood And Butter. I didn't hate it or anything I just couldn't make up my mind after a few listens but it clicked with me really quickly once I started listening to this album. I love the combination of natural and synthetic instrumentation and how they slip in and out of each other so perfectly. I also just love the songwriting here with one sticky refrain after another and momentum that builds throughout.
The finale single Billions is the closing track and it's the song that almost every publication has agreed is the album's masterpiece which is pretty strange to me. I do like it but it might be my least favorite of all the singles. Regardless it serves as a great closer for the album and an incredibly strong finale with its pulling and pushing strings, subtle electronic instrumentation, and memorable refrains.
A lot of the singles turn up early on the album but even the deep cuts in the first half are great. Pretty In Possible has a bouncy beat and beautiful refrains. While it does have a bit of a week hook, particularly in the final rendition where it feels like it just drags on forever, I'm still surprised by how much I like the song every time I revisit it. Crude Drawing Of An Angel isn't perfect and there are pockets of the song that feel a little flat. But there are also moments like the walkie-talkie style background vocals and Caroline's shimmering harmonies on the chorus that are absolutely irresistible.
The record also ends on a pretty great run starting with Butterfly Net. It's an interesting song that grew on me with consecutive listens mainly just because I appreciate how weird it is. From the strange percussion samples in the instrumentation to the strange wandering refrains it felt like an entirely different journey from the rest of the record. Smoke is one of the record's shorter songs but it makes good use of both its time and space with the last minute, in particular, being this wandering exploration of these short repeated vocal refrains that has all kinds of weird instrumental interpolations flashed in and out of it.
What holds the record back from being truly incredible is a run of just okay songs in the middle of the tracklist, but even the record's low points aren't that low. Fly To You is the closest of the bunch to being good and it features the only features on the album with Grimes and Dido collaborating over a distant drum and bass instrumental. Even though I have some issues with the songwriting I think the trio work together surprisingly well even though Caroline kind of steals the show.
I Believe is a song that's more awkward than outright bad. I don't think the vocalizations here hold up to the rest of the record and while I like the instrumental it's still one of the most nondescript here. Hopedrunk Everasking is my least favorite song on the record which is a surprise because I'm normally a huge fan of minimalism. It does have individual pieces I find quite pretty but overall they don't add up into a song, sounding more like fragments.
Desire, I Want To Turn Into You is a wonderful pop record and the kind that could only come from Caroline Polachek and Danny L Harle. While there's an element of artsiness to the album as you might expect I wouldn't even say it stops being a fun vibrant pop album. Much of that is a credit to how wonderful these instrumentals are, improving on my biggest issue with Caroline's last album. The ability it has to fuse together natural strings with synthetic beats creates unconventionally beautiful soundscapes for her voice to wander through. Paired with her immense talent and unique style of crafting refrains, every song here is firmly Caroline's and couldn't be anyone else. It may take a bit more time to settle in with listeners than your average pop record, but by the end of the year this is likely to be among my favorite pop albums of 2023. 8/10
For more art pop check out my review of Bjork's Fossora here
