Caroline Polachek

Caroline Polachek is a singularity: One of music’s most continually inventive pop auteurs, ashimmering ribbon of a voice that’s immediately recognizable, a self-releasing independent artist, acrate digger, and a lifelong headphone listener who writes songs that literally fill stadiums.Her new albumDesire, I Want To Turn IntoYouis herseventh album, but the second under hername. If 2019’sPangwas an ephemeral, crystallinedocument of risking everything for new love,Desireis Polachek at her most physical, turning upthe temperature and trading tight narrative forvisceral tone-poetry.Desireis a constellation ofbig, potent songs that hit immediately then stay withyou and continue to echo and bloom. It’s a canvas with earth and water and blood-toned colorssplashed against it.As withPang, Polachek co-produced the album withDanny L. Harle. “Most of the album is just meand Danny in a series of little rooms,” Polachek says.The two kept the production process verytightly contained, with the exception of the lead track “WelcomeTo My Island,” (which sees a returnofPangcollaborators Dan Nigro,A.G. Cook and Jim-EStack), and "Sunset,” (co-written/producedwith Sega Bodega).And with the lines between acoustic and electronic all but completely blurredcomes a few surprising nods to traditional music from Scottish bagpipe player Brighde Chaimbeulon “Blood & Butter”, Spanish guitarist Marco Lopez on “Sunset”, and London’sTrinity Children'sChoir on “Billions" and "Butterfly Net.”Those who’ve been paying attention to Polachek’s post-Pangoutput will notice a few familiar songs,the aforementioned “Billions” as well as “Bunny IsARider.”This is on purpose: Polachek liked theidea of releasing songs as they were written, often incorporating them into the live show as theywere still being worked on in the studio. “I wanted to try evolving in public rather than having a cleandivision between bodies of work; inviting you to come on this journey with me, to watch it render.”she says. “Real-time mutation felt more fun and high-stakes than the traditional cycle where theartist disappears for the costume change, clears the Instagram, and then rolls out a new era.”But with this transparency comes a new habit of building sidequests and puzzleboxes. For fans whowant to dig beneath the surface, the album has no shortage of secret passageways, connecting bothaudio and visual motifs to everything from fake Marianne Williamson tweets to Greek mythology, withlyrics and melodies reprising playfully across songs and even across albums.But the medium is the message: Polachek says the concept of “spiraling”, in all its formal beauty andmodern messiness, was one ofDesire’s organizing principles.There’s a studied carelessness here,an on-purpose too-muchness, a fuzzed line between mania and transcendence. It’s sensual, smart,vital, and never without humor. “It's not introverted or precious this time around” Polachek says. “I think this album is firmly situated in the sweep of everyday life.That’s the packed subway car on thealbum cover, filling up with sand, crawling and coffee-stained, probably not even on the right train,deep underground, headphones on, just awash in the abundance and contradictions of being alive.”That already-iconic cover, shot byAidan Zamiri, is a skeleton key unto itself. In its dense frame,you’ll see a number of the album’s visual motifs: ants, a “vesuvius” sticker which nods to volcanicthemes in the song “Smoke” and Caroline’s stage design, producer Danny LHarle in the backgroundholding his daughter Nico (the giggling child sample on"Bunny is a Rider”) who is in turn holding aplush bunny, and there's an actual “crude drawing of an angel” on the ceiling, too. If you zoom in,you might notice the strangely primitive subway maps shaped like Minos, another famous island.OnDesire’s opener, “WelcomeTo My Island,” the albumtitle takes the form of a brash clarion callthat thrusts you immediately intoDesire’svivid world:“Welcometomyisland/Seethepalmtreeswaveinthebreeze/Welcometomyisland/Hopeyoulikeme/Youain'tleaving/Desire,Iwanttoturnintoyou...”The title is a riddle thatcan be read multiple ways: Is it a wanting tobecome desire itself, like pure electricity? Do you want to totally become the object of your desire, aparadox in itself? Or is it simply wanting to be held?Asthealbumendsonachildren’schoirsinging“Ineverfeltsoclosetoyou”,Polachek illustratestime again thatDesirecan be all of thosethings at once.Desire, I Turn IntoYouis out on Valentine’s Day.