The vocal that launches Caroline Polachek’s latest album sounds somewhere between a siren’s call and a primal scream. It’s alluring, eerie and tricky to pin down — a description that could be applied across Polachek’s prolific catalogue.
Her credits as singer-songwriter present a giddy whirl, from her emergence in Brooklyn indie outfit Chairlift to numerous guest appearances (Charli XCX, Christine and the Queens) and writing for other artists (including Beyoncé’s 2013 number “No Angel”) to solo work in various guises (Ramona Lisa, CEP). Her first album under her own name (2019’s Pang) signalled an avant-pop direction, and Desire, I Want to Turn Into You is a deliciously emboldened sequel: a Valentine’s Day delivery from her own label.
The album takes its title from a lyric in opening number “Welcome to My Island”. This snappy slice of electropop, and its splendidly surreal video, splices 1980s-styled hooks with experimental touches: primetime classic MTV meets contemporary art installation. Romance is in rude health throughout Desire; tender sentiments appear alongside messy glamour, lust and mystique (including the alt-R&B throb of “Bunny Is a Rider”, originally released in 2021).
More than ever, Polachek sounds like an indie spirit with global scope. She has spoken about the influence of childhood years spent in Japan as well as her US birthplace, while she now appears to spend half her time in the UK. Before this album, she released an aria, “Non Voglio Mai Vedere Il Sole Tramontare” (taken from last year’s Royal Opera adaptation of Gus Van Sant’s film, Last Days), which arguably reflects the vocal/thematic confidence she displays here. She brings together electro-experimentalist Grimes and late-1990s soul-popster Dido for the unexpectedly pretty, breakbeat-fuelled “Fly to You”.
The bittersweet Latin pop of “Sunset” (“I’m wearing black to mourn the sudden loss of innocence/But that’s all right because it hides the dirt and hides the wine”), features producer Sega Bodega and feels like a murky flipside to Madonna’s “La Isla Bonita”. “Blood and Butter” is a serenade with Celtic pipes (played by Scottish musician Brìghde Chaimbeul) and insistently weird rhymes (“Look at you all mythicalogical/ And Wikipediated”), before the album plays out with a slinky slow burn and haunting choral refrain (“I’ve never felt so close to you”) on “Billions”.
Such scattershot elements might have easily fallen to pieces, but Desire’s productions somehow sound both uncluttered and unconstrained, and Polachek holds everything together captivatingly.
★★★★☆
‘Desire, I Want to Turn Into You’ is released by Perpetual Novice