caroline 2 - caroline: Review
Review by Lavender:
caroline are a British 8-piece post-rock outfit who, despite denying its influence, seems to blend the sentimental flavors of Midwest emo with their winding instrumental passages and compositional flexibility. Back in 2022, I called their first album caroline , one of my favorite debut records of the year, and I was really looking forward to what the band had in store. Now, 3 years later, they're rapidly becoming critical darlings as praise and attention for this record has begun to pour in. Though I don't love the record quite as much as some, I still think it's both an improvement on their debut and a very strong statement.
caroline 2 led off with one of the best singles I've heard anywhere this year, “Total euphoria.” It introduces the album's signature combination of fluttering emo-influenced motifs with vibrant post-rock instrumentation, and the cooed-out vocals have been stuck in my head for months. It's an entrancing combination that instantly spiked my excitement for the record, a feeling that the following singles upheld.
“Tell me I never knew that” features a surprise appearance from Caroline Polachek whose methodical repetition at the end of the track is really the icing on the cake. Getting there is a great journey as intimate passages swell seamlessly into emotional highs, and short lyrical phases get across a nostalgic and sentimental ethos. I similarly enjoyed the even more uncompromising “Coldplay cover,” which introduces both the band’s sense of humor, but also their willingness to make these songs really feel like abstracted journeys. The track literally vanishes at the midpoint after a rustic and dreamy passage that grabbed me immediately. In the second half, you get banjo strumming as the vocals drift in and out, even to points where they're barely even audible. It's a wonderfully inventive way to present the song that I really adore.
The album's compositional ambition is simultaneously one of its finest qualities and one of its most noteworthy flaws. To start on the dark side of things, look at “Song two.” It carries on the dusty emo-inspired flare of the singles with gentle guitar lines and fluttering distant drums, but it's a very imprecise song. It's so difficult to pin down that despite individual moments I enjoy, the complete disconnect it serves up is more distracting than anything else. That can also be done more playfully on songs like “U R ONLY ACHING.” The song begins pretty loud and completely undercuts its own instrumental out of nowhere in a move that's confusing but obviously purposefully so. When it returns with autotune-slathered vocals, it's the point on the record where I realized nothing it dished out could surprise me anymore.
But just as it can be used to silly ends, those unconventional compositions can also make for beautiful moments. “Two riders down” doesn't start off perfectly with distant wailing vocals calling out over an array of dissonant layers of instrumentation. It's a great idea, but there's a layer of what I think is violin that dominates the mix whenever it's around. Thankfully, from there it starts to ascend on a dramatic, long build that feels like exactly the kind of driving, explosive climax I've always been waiting to hear from the band.
And that's hardly the only deep cut I enjoy. “When I get home” features a brilliant contrast of dissonant but extremely persistent warbling bass with more gentle and tightly intimate vocals and strings. What results is surprisingly serene and transitions that feeling seamlessly through another mid-song breakdown. I also love the finale, which is fittingly called “Beautiful ending,” I'm assuming specifically to spite critics like me. It begins with such a grand, blown-out sound that exists in complete contrast to most of the album and the isolated acoustic guitar that eventually follows. It feels like a perfectly fitting note for the record to go out on.
On caroline 2, the talented musicians that make up the band's roster feel bored with music as it exists and intent on changing it. That ambitious undertaking leads to a variety of results and may turn some listeners away before the record gets to reveal its best work. But if you stick with it through its weaker ideas, you'll find that hidden in the folds are several moments that perfectly balance the genuinely experimental with the authentically emotional, and it's in those points where Caroline really feels special. 7.5/10
For more great indie, check out my review of Jenny Hval's Iris Silver Mist
