Caroline Polachek – Desire, I Want To Turn Into You

Review Score:

A-

The Unprecedented Times –

May 4 / 2023

On Desire, I Want To Turn Into You, Caroline borrows, creates, and molds sounds with ease. She never sounds uncomfortable or out of place in any one of them despite the range of styles she dips her toes into. What Desire lacks in cohesion, it makes up for bold experimentation. 

This album wasn’t an instant hit for me. It took me repeated listens to really analyze and appreciate all that was going on here. And I wouldn’t blame anyone who was in the same boat as I was. “Welcome To My Island” is a phenomenal opener, but the rest of the album was almost overwhelming in its eccentricity.

Caroline uses her voice in so many unique ways across the entirety of the album. Her mastery of her own vocals is a feat in itself. From the first song, she belts out an echoing, triumphant call. Synths back her up, but as is true on many of the tracks, her voice is still the star no matter the instrumentation behind it.  And the instrumentation is varied. Some of it is cohesive, but it feels like Caroline wasn’t aiming for that kind of record. There are many detours into different styles, but none so far out of the way as the heavily Latin inspired “Sunset”. 

The use of acoustic guitar on “Blood And Butter” is a welcome departure from the electronic sounds Caroline has embraced up to this point. But then the unthinkable happens: a bagpipe solo. It’s such an unhinged artistic choice that you can’t do anything but sit with your mouth agape in awe of Caroline’s power. And it has no business working as well as it does. It’s not a random choice though. Polachek has since said that bagpipes have a sound similar to an autotuned voice, which would explain how they seem to blend into the mix so fluently.

Her lyricism tends toward the abstract. The song “Crude Drawing of an Angel” reads like a surrealist sci-fi dream sequence. Sometimes, through all of the strangeness, singular lines shine through like brief moments of lucidity. “I don’t know but I believe we’ll get another day together”, or “I can not afford that kind of free”. 

Caroline Polachek’s Desire, I Want To Turn Into You is one, if not THE, boldest pop record this year. Many of its experimental elements pay off, but even those that don’t are still admirable. Polachek’s commitment to the strange, the unusual, and the slightly uncomfortable is what sets her apart. She could easily lean into a more generic sound and get by on the quality of her vocals alone. But she doesn’t. And her evolution as an artist will be one to watch.

Review Score:

A-