Caroline Polachek

Time for her own thread

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4zEQJrggKgk

New single co-written & co-produced with Danny L Harle. I like this more than "Bunny" with a real Kate Bush vibe to the kids choir coda. 2022 album seems likely.

I don't know much about her, but it reminds me of a lot of '90s trip-hop adjacent stuff, like Golden Palominos with Lori Carson, that sort of stuff.

For those who are unfamiliar...
- Polachek was the lead singer of synth-pop band Chairlift who had 3 albums between 2008 and 2016. A couple songs to check out from that era are "Moth to the Flame" and "I Belong In Your Arms," which placed #77 and #8, respectively, in their years' ILM Tracks Polls. The album Something was #36 in the ILM 2012 poll.
- During that time, Polachek put out a solo album called Arcadia under the name Ramona Lisa. Right after Chairlift broke up, Polachek released an album under her initials CEP called Drawing the Target Around the Arrow in 2017. I haven't heard either of these and would be interested in others thoughts on these.
- Two years later she released Pang, working with PC Music's Danny L Harle--it placed 15th in the ILM Albums poll; "So Hot You're Hurting My Feelings" placed #34 (too low!) and "Door" placed #20 in the ILM tracks poll.

she just (minutes ago) posted a new cover of "long road home" by her recent collaborator opn

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lUbfgRI8G38

I really dig this. Thanks.

Damn, she's opening here tomorrow for Dua Lipa.

Thanks for the heads up.

I don’t see much overlap between fans of Polachek and Dua Lipa but I’d pay for that.

Not a huge fan of Danny as a solo artist, but definitely like him as a producer and the chemistry when paired with Polachek.

somehow "So Hot" passed me by at the time but I've more than made up for it over the last few months

i got really into her stuff a few months ago when I heard Bunny is a Rider.

Not a huge fan of Danny as a solo artist, but definitely like him as a producer and the chemistry when paired with Polachek.

― ✖✖✖ (Moka), Saturday, February 12, 2022 12:06 AM (two days ago) bookmarkflaglink

Same

somehow "So Hot" passed me by at the time but I've more than made up for it over the last few months

― sloop johnnin' skater (geoffreyess), Saturday, February 12, 2022 9:11 AM (two days ago) bookmarkflaglink

Yeah it is amazing

SHYHMF is basically a Corrs song but I love it

featured on new track by Flume

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2cDDp_uWFsI

so hot hits like a pro tools tango in the night thing. it’s p good. sometimes her stuff seems a bit … optimized but i feel like something big could be on the horizon for her

flume track vox reminds me of the fifth element alien opera scene. find the production a bit grating

Flume’s production in general is super obnoxious to me.

She makes a great pairing with Danny.

I think I said this on a chairlift thread but she strikes me as extremely academic, which I think is part of what you mean when you say stuff seems a bit "optimized". It's extremely informed in approach. It often feels to me like it shouldn't be working at all which is partly why I like it as much as I do.

yeah academic and informed are good descriptors. she def has serious talent and range. saw her do an experimental / instrumental set once and thought she did better than those on the bill whose only gig is that sort of thing

She is currently at the peak of her powers. She’s definitely talented and knows exactly what she wants her songs to sound like.

Every generation has its Kate Bush and I firmly believe Caroline Polachek is filling that role atm.

you have reached your maximum allotted Kate Bushes per generation (1)

I wish Kate Bush would have made as good an album as Pang.

max allotted bad takes per thread

fair enough

New song “sunset” out on monday.

Going with the live performance it slaps. Balearic 90’s flamenco pop thing

Exciting! But we need a new album. I've worn out all the grooves on Pang.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-YBP-D6vQIA

really like this one

first one I'm not enthused by in a while. It's alright I guess.

sunset[gerudo_valleygirl_mix].mp3 pic.twitter.com/ySMdnmaUJO

— Caroline Polachek (@carolineplz) October 22, 2022

I like So Hot You're Hurting my Feelings and work with Ice Choir

sunset[gerudo_valleygirl_mix].mp3

lol, first song that came to my mind too. I like this song a lot tho

I LOOOOVE 'SUNSET'

this song feels like it could singlehandedly get me through the winter

I like it a lot too and also really like the very mid-00s bleak house Sofia Kourtesis mix of 'Sirens'

it reminds me of azoto, san salvador

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Akp38JIXiZU

another new single on the way next week. just release an album please

https://www.thelineofbestfit.com/news/caroline-polachek-announces-new-single-welcome-to-my-island

Sounds like there's a new album, 'Desire, I Want to Turn Into You'.

Rolling Stone said that 'Bunny is a Rider' was the lead single, but

there are a lot of random things being said online about what’s on Desire, but unless you hear it from me it isn’t true 💋🐜🐜🐜

— Caroline Polachek (@carolineplz) December 5, 2022

apple music has it as 12 tracks with "welcome to my island" being track 1, "bunny is a rider" being track 3, "sunset" being track 4, and "billions" as track 12 so...?

If the quality of the rest of the album is as high as the previous 3 singles I don’t mind if she takes another year to release it.

Oh fcuk i dont know if its an error but the song is available on spotify mx right now

Yes, idk if they fucked up but it’s available right now. Don’t know if it’s only working in my country or its a worlwide fuckup. Here’s the link:

https://open.spotify.com/album/53LBDupH6C8cJvPEzH6nKI

Least interesting single so far on first listen - sounds like Caroline doing a Haim song - but it still has great production with some weird choices like that “vocal guitar solo” thing she does that makes it stand out from other 80’s pastiche.

It’s on spotify as an EP with the 4 songs released so far, it might be a confirmation that Bunny is also considered as part of the same album.

Maybe it’s a real guitar

the single being out is intentional yeah

it's good

I think Caroline's post was referring not so much to "Bunny..." being on the album, but to other unreleased songs, the titles of which have leaked.

That’s some bad cover art right there

On the Billions single there’s a song called “long road home” with OPN that I don’t remember being there before?

Is that a new “hidden” track or has that always been there and I hadn’t noticed?

Oh yeah apparently it has always been there… weird first time I see it

That’s some bad cover art right there

― im a beacon of light (Spottie)

You mean the single or the album cover? I kind of like all the singles artwork but the actual album cover is not good imho and doesn’t follow the “all black” background of the singles. “Bunny is a rider” is the best one for me.

https://shop.carolinepolachek.com/products/desire-lp

I kind of hate when album covers do fake “vinyl wear” or distressed textures. Idk if the plastic fold texture is part of the actual album cover but I hate it lol.

New song is good, very ready for this album

i like the cover, it's funny. it's very classic rock

cover is good. danny l harle with his kid is cute

"Blood and Butter" - it's fine, very much an album track imo. she should just drop the whole thing already.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l0iqFWx4H04

two more weeks! I'll probably save listening to the new song until the album drops

Hmm just noticed this on the tracklist, hard to imagine the three of them on one song:

7. "Fly to You" (featuring Grimes and Dido)

new album is easily her best since something

That dido and grimes song is already available in some countries.

Too much grimes not enough Dido

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1B7-L068op0

Oh actually the whole thing gets released at midnight.

Haven’t listened but it seems asides from the previous singles people are loving “butterfly net” the most and “i believe” and “smoke”

Oh actually the whole thing gets released at midnight.

― ✖✖✖ (Moka)

It's already streaming now. Sounding great so far.

xp yeah those are all great

Butterfly Net is astonishing.

Goddamit it still not available for me. Must resist the temptation.

Not sure how I'd rank this against Something and Pang yet - both amazing albums to me - but this was lovely on first listen. the Grimes/Dido collaboration makes sense now, basically the Venn diagram intersection of the three artists

pang had some real high points but it was a fair bit more oblique overall while desire is all hits

I think her aesthetics continue to elude me. There are plenty of ideas here and the skeletal-exotic-ethereal electro pop sound is interesting, but I'm not sure any of it sticks with me. Still enjoyed the listen.

This is a lot of fun. I kind of rolled my eyes but also smiled approvingly at the sequencing of "I Believe" and "Fly To You" back to back, if you're gonna be up on current trends you may as well flaunt it.

First listen:

Caroline’s songwriting is good but the real star here for me is Danny L Harle’s production to the point I think this should have been billed as a Polachek + Harle album instead of a solo album.

What I love the most is that it seems to channel that almost forgotten downtempo/folktronica era of late 90’s/early 00’s: William Orbit, Frou Frou, Zero 7, Imogen Heap, those downtempo ibiza/cafe del mar compilations… it’s a sound that noone seemed interested in revive as it pretty much saturated the market and said everything it needed to say back then, but Polachek and Harle are masters of their craft and update it to a new style of their own.

Minor complaint: Dido makes perfect sense in an album that channels this early 00’s vibe, but she was underused. I like Vinnie’s comment upthread. That song does really sound like a Venn Diagram between the three singers involved.

Also like that the album is concise and has no filler. The singles are probably the highlight for me - although Butterfly Net sounded great too - but it’s too early to tell after one listen.

I’m still not sure if I like it more than Pang, it’s a whole different beast.

Really like this (as expected, since I already knew and liked half of it). My faves are still the pre-release singles, but some of the others might get there with repetition. Of the ones I didn't know, my favorites off the bat are "I Believe" and "Smoke." But I dig the whole vibe of it.

"Butterfly Net" has been mentioned a few times but that was also the biggest standout of the new songs to me. A classically beautiful song

It hasn't sunk in for me yet but a few more listens may reveal it, since it seems widely liked.

The Grimes connection makes a ton of sense, though I'd never considered it before -- aside from the guest spot, "Blood and Butter" recalls "California."

It remind me more of “Easily” but it’s because both songs sound super influenced by William Orbit to me with the acoustic guitars and those echo-ed bleeps that are sort of his signature sound.

Yeah William Orbit really is a good reference point. Her aesthetic is kind of rooted in that Y2K vibe.

yeah it's all very late 90s downtempo electronica, which is also what art angels was heavily drawing upon, just more energetically (the ray of light title track etc.)

if anyone was going to do a 2020s equivalent of "Hide And Seek" it would be Caroline Polachek

Don't forget about Taylor Swift's "Clean."

Heap's influence on modern pop was covered in this pitchfork piece and Polachek's vocals are mentioned: "You can hear Heap in the slippery, divine runs of the classically-trained art-pop virtuoso Caroline Polachek, who inflects so precisely that she sounds as if she’s using Auto-Tune when she’s not."

Just put on Speak for Yourself for the first time in ages and it sounds fantastic. Had no recollection of how layered "Goodnight and Go" is, nor the delightfully weird instrumental bridge.

I Megaphone (Imogen's debut) is also perhaps the archetypal example of a late nineties debut sounding like a Spin article about electronica vomited rainbows on the arrangements - this is not a criticism exactly, though it's certainly a bit clunkier than Ray of Light or Kylie's Impossible Princess or Tori's From The Choirgirl Hotel (which, remarkably given the resemblances, Imogen and her producers could not have heard before finishing the album).

Speak for Yourself is a strong album. I still listen to it now and then and Caroline's autotune-like vocal glides sound just like her

Everything else Imogen Heap has done before and after that album is a letdown by comparison, excepting a couple Frou Frou songs. Really a one-album wonder

OK "Butterfly Net" hooked me this time through. I just needed to slow down enough to appreciate the melody.

Second listen…

The songs that start with “B” are the best ones for me by far: Butterfly Net, Bunny, Billions, Blood and Butter.

I lied before, there is some filler: Crude drawing and hopedrunk are it, but they’re sequenced very smart in the album and serve as darker, moody, palette cleansers from the more brighter songs in between them.

All the goodwill I had for Grimes is gone completely and she ruins “fly to you” for me. Wish either Grimes was completely gone off this record or Dido was a feature on another song without her, Dido works but her only verse in there isn’t enough to make me want to listen to Grimes in 2023. Only skippable song for me on second listen.

Had the same thought about the Grimes feature. Unfortunate.

"Smoke" is a highlight for me, too.

Polachek sounds terrific.

if anyone was going to do a 2020s equivalent of "Hide And Seek" it would be Caroline Polachek

― boxedjoy, Tuesday, February 14, 2023 5:25 PM (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=psSIJig_xnY

RYM really likes this eh

I suppose I'll have to see if it's a bit more enjoyable this time

I'm liking this album so far, but every time "Hopedrunk Everasking" comes on, it sets me on edge because there is a little high pitched ping noise that sounds exactly like my smoke detector flickering on and off, which it does whenever I have a power outage.

lol

That's the track I skip.

i know this makes me sound like an old grump but I wish she'd lay off the autotune on her vocals; she doesn't need it obviously and it's done for aesthetic effect only, but it wears on my ears. does she need to use it on every single song?

there is a little high pitched ping noise that sounds exactly like my smoke detector flickering on and off

lol for me it sounds like a squeak our dryer makes sometimes, and so far every time that song comes on (when I'm at home, anyway) my first thought is that there's a load of clothes in there.

re autotune, I recognize that it's present but honestly I barely notice it — it feels of a piece with her whole sonic conception.

Gonna get on my soapbox for this one. As you kind of note, autotune (and similar processors) is generally used for 2 different purposes: correcting tuning and as a special effect. The first time I heard it used as an effect was on "Believe" by Cher some 25 years ago, so it's been around a long time! Now is it a bit of a cliche to use it as an effect at this point? Maybe, maybe not. But I would note that no one ever comments on other effects that are used on pretty much every single vocal recording like reverb, delay, compression, etc. It is just another in the arsenal of effects that are available and used constantly and should be seen as part of the landscape rather than something on which it is worth taking a polemical stance.

Yeah I agree with that, I've actually enjoyed the way all sorts of different musicians are playing with autotune as an effect. It doesn't always work — sometimes it's distracting — but used well it adds another texture.

Also I agree with the above sentiments about Hopedrunk and Crude Drawing, I think they work in the flow of the album but they are kind of meh as songs.

Yeah "Crude Drawing" is kind of a nothing track. I'm also not big on "I Believe". Ultimately the album falls a little short of Pang to me, but I do like that it's more ambitious than Pang and hope she keeps stretching on future material

“I Believe” doesn’t quite work for me. It feels too upbeat for her if it makes sense.

I’d probably rank them as

4/5 stars
Bunny
Blood
Billions
Butterflly

3/5
The rest

Haha yes the "B"-sides are the best

I love those synth stabs in "I Believe," but those things are my language

Glad I'm not alone in immediately latching on to "Butterfly Net."

My pick for standout track is still "Sunset." I can't remember whether I already said this upthread, but it gives me heavy "Ojos Así" vibes.

It almost turns into a Shakira track1

Ah yeah Sunset is cool too, I didn’t bother ranking all the tracklist but that one would probably next in line after the “B sides”

Pretty good review, making the Enya/Pure Moods connection: https://www.theatlantic.com/culture/archive/2023/02/caroline-polachek-desire-turn-into-you-album-review/673129/

Along those lines, I like somewhat muted use of the Funky Drummer beat on "Pretty In Possible," very '90s chill room.

Hard disagree with the consensus so far on Crude Drawing of an Angel. It's one of the highlights of the album for sure. Superb mid-1980s David Sylvian vibes.

Comparing in general is lazy - I know because I try to make connections all the time and I’m lazy - but the Kate Bush comparisons I see so frequently about her feel very lazy to me. It just feels like the catch-all reference for kooky white women in a solo career.

I mean yeah she probably loves Kate Bush but I don’t really hear her as one of her main influences on this album or any of her past work.

I mean I myself compared her as filling the Kate Bush role for this generation.

But in reality - as observed in this thread - vocally she sounds more influenced by Imogen Heap.

Anyways haven’t revisited this one, it felt like a spring album to me, so I’ll wait a couple of months and I’ll go back to it.

yeah I think the KB comparisons were maybe slightly more apt for some of hear earlier work but not here...though I guess sunset recalls eat the music a bit.

Superb mid-1980s David Sylvian vibes

I'm in

"crude drawing of an angel" is actually probably her most actually kate bush track ever, would be right at home on the dreaming or hounds of love. otherwise yeah the comparison isn't particularly direct or useful

Love that one. That "camera one, camera two" business is great

My dad texted me the other day, very excited because he had just learned that Caroline Polachek's grandfather was Slovak.

your dad knows who caroline polachek is?

I was as surprised as you! We share music recommendations fairly often, but I'm pretty sure I have never brought her up to him before (didn't think she'd be to his taste, shows what I know!!)

I saw her concert last night, it was quite an experience. George Clanton opened, a fun surprise, he's a mischievous scamp projecting L.A. stoner vibes. His set was more alt rock than I would have expected, almost like Deftones if they had chill synths instead of loud guitars, with a fun LED background flashing images of pot leafs, pentagrams, and Bowser from Mario.

Despite following Polachek since the Chairlift years, I was still caught by surprise at how DRAMATIC everything was. She played all the songs you'd expect, and they all had big dance moves throughout. The crowd was super intense, screaming and dancing along to every single song. I thought some of the more mid-tempo groovy numbers came across particularly well because the music gave her a bit more space, and the several of the slow atmospheric ballads put across a very strong Twin Peaks/Julee Cruise vibe. My only minor disappointment is that she didn't do any Chairlift songs, but I figured that would be the case.

There's definitely this uncanny valley thing going on with her voice, I was wondering throughout how much she was actually singing vs lipsyncing. I'm pretty sure she really was singing it all, but it's such a wild combination of super acrobatic, perfectly executed vocals through a mass of effects, that it's hard to believe it's real. I don't think I've ever heard someone in a big pop or rock concert sing with that level of skill before.

Also, I'm pretty sure the new album is the best thing she's done, it's amazing to see how ambitious she's gotten with her singing over the years. I don't think the earlier Chairlift albums really showed off her range, but maybe she's also just become more skillful over time.

This is a decent quality video of a recent show that's fairly identical to what I saw:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=onD5ycsuFy8

George Clanton opened

I saw the tour in Athens, Ga., on Saturday, and yeah, really dug it. We only caught the last few songs of George Clanton, but he was fun. Polachek's video projections and little bit of stage decoration did a good job of setting a bit of an otherworldly scene. "Welcome to My Island" was the logical set opener and very much gave off a Circe vibe, like she was casting a spell. The crowd was sold out and about what I expected, indie-hipster with strong queer component. People knew every word — not that hard when all the material came from two albums, I guess. I liked her stage persona, friendly but a little ethereal, and her arm choreography in particular was intricate and impressive. (My wife worried a bit about her skinniness, but I'll give her the benefit of the doubt that she's taking care of herself, she seems to have her act together pretty well.)

Good show.

A friend of mine tells me his daughter in an MFA program is complaining that "Caroline Polachek is all you ever hear" at art school these days, which tracks.

Re: The uncanny valley: many people in the comments of this interview losing their shit over the "vocal thing" that happens around 2:30

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wj-XPN0Yj24

What are they saying? Don't feel like clicking.

She calls it "vocal flipping", almost sounds like a vocal getting chopped and pitched up in real time, or real time auto-tune, pretty crazy.

Feel like I need to ask somebody now. Will get back to you.

It sounds insane. Always thought there was a great deal of autotune in several of her vocal runs but now I’m not sure.

xp

Jordan explained exactly what she does, not sure why someone else would need to describe it

Um, are the ILX Doubting Thomas Police or would you like to be?

are you

I don't want to misquote Jordan, but my reading of what he wrote was he was describin what it sounded like, not what she was actually doing.

Anyway there is a whole thing about opera singing technique and how they really know how to turn on the vibrato iirc which is what I thought I heard her doing but I dunno.

whaaaaaaat

she says in the video she doesn't use a lot of opera techniques and the thing she does in the video for approximately one second is not an opera thing

watched it five times and still not really sure what's happening

I think I heard I saw you fry.

Moodles, are you an opera singer yourself?

no, I am merely telling you what she says in the video about 5 seconds before she does the thing that people were commenting on

I can't sing at all so I have no idea how she's doing what she's doing muscularly (tbh even using vibrato is somewhat magical to me), but it sounds really cool. It seems like it might be similar to a trumpet player doing lip slurs going between notes (at least in terms of the effect, different physical mechanism obviously).

Heh. I thought people where talking about the way she emphasized the word “sound” which was actually at the 2:30 mark, I didn’t even get to the autotune part.

All this time I also thought that's what you all were talking about, lol

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s_p657VvFww

After that finished playing I got an ad for Don Giovanni at the Met, DO U SEE?

Comments there say it is akin to yodeling.

Or sideways yodeling even.

She's flipping between her "head voice" and her "chest voice", which is exactly yodelling, she's just trained her head voice to be low-enough to be in the same range as her chest voice. It's not much different from what Dolores was doing in The Cranberries. It's pretty neat

https://iv1.lisimg.com/image/13860578/245full-madonna%3A-truth-or-dare-screenshot.jpg

It's not much different from what Dolores was doing in The Cranberries.

My wife has some musical theater training and this is exactly the reference point she used — "It's like in 'Zombie.'" (She also made the "head voice"/"chest voice" distinction.)

very cool

Do we have an existing thread for discussion of head voice, chest voice, vibrato, etc?

This maybe: Is there a word for the opposite of falsetto?

The opposite of falsetto is when you sing through your butt, I call it fartsetto

Thank you, Bart Simpson.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7XYyDsl14E4

3 songs live on KEXP. Such a good performer.

wow, she's in fine voice.

Her range as a singer has expanded dramatically since the Chairlift days

I fuckin' love this album.

"Bunny is a Rider" is ace.

Probably my AOTY

Wish there was no Grimes track tbh

i forgot she was on it actually. I'm still not as hot on this album as I was on Pang but it's pretty good.

https://x.com/carolineplz/status/1706815548724822407?s=20

Tiny Desk Concertt NPR performance. Great control of her voice.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JmnZHQNN5cc

Wow, gotta say this is the most I've ever "gotten" CP, one of those times where the stripped down format really works.

The drummer is great, I knew him from his viral drum & bass instagram vids, and I'd love to know if he got the gig through that or if he's a working drummer who also happens to be big on social media.

Yeah amazing drummer and the stripped down setting makes her voice even more impressive.

yeah it really highlights just how incredible her voice is. it makes me want to hear her do a more acoustic or orchestral album

i also really like the keyboard making acoustic guitar sounds alongside the actual acoustic guitars, great combo

That gave me some early Dead Can Dance vibes

New song “Dang”, premiered via this excellent slide presentation on The Late Show:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6UsIcDivsls

That was awesome

fun presentation, though I don't love the actual song, probably the most Chairlift-sounding of her solo career so far

"Dang" is fun, so much ear candy in it

They reran that Colbert performance from last week in an otherwise new episode this week, so strong the buzz.

She always impresses.

she was fantastic live and played extra songs for the last show of the tour including an unplanned second "so hot"

i only wish she'd thrown in some chairlift songs too because they had some classics too

New version of "Butterfly Net" with Weyes Blood from the forthcoming deluxe edition

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hBK4qzZNgR0

well shit, their voices sound incredible together

gorgeous

the original was probably my favorite song on Desire, and this is a step up from that

"hopedrunk everasking" is incredible

didn't realize people thought it was filler. i got stuck repeating that one on my first listen through of the album. if that's filler, i can't wait for the rest of the songs to open up with further listens

I would have guessed "Spring Is Coming With a Strawberry in the Mouth" was an original song, but instead it's a cover and a surprisingly faithful one. glad she shone some light on that song, I like her version and the original

yeah I'd never heard that song either, original is so good (so is her cover).

Oh the original is great! Nice discovery!

Also it seems the original was produced by Bono which is… unexpected.

Nice, got into the Operating Theatre song when it got a reissue last year - cool to hear this version.

omg immense tune. Hadn't heard of it.

this page says

the Mother Records label. Established by U2 in 1984 and initially intended to launch Irish bands, many of the acts – including this one – were subsequently unhappy about the label’s haphazard approach to releases and lack of promotion. The record was released as a die cut 7 inch with the two main tracks and a 12 inch EP with additional tracks – ‘Part of My Make-Up’ / ‘Atlantean’ / ‘Satanasa’. The Mother experience was for Doyle and the rest of the group a frustrating one with no promotional plan and no tour. After that Operating Theatre as a quasi pop project ‘just kind of fizzled out’ says Doyle.”

fuck you bono!

Oh now the Bono credit makes sense. Damn that sucks.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MmdKkUfpRew

really love this

I like that way more than most of the other 'recent' stuff!