When trying to illustrate the cliché of “uncrowned queen” in pop, the name of Caroline Polachek invariably comes out of hats. And for good reason: despite its millions of monthly listeners on Spotify and the commercial success of its Pang released four years ago, the one that some call the ” Kate Bush 2.0″ (what a horror) seems to remain forever confined to this status of “favorite singer of your favorite singer”, where she nevertheless seems to unite everything to meet the planetary success of a Dua Lipa.
After several years marked by great media discretion (we can still note its notable participation in the very good Crash of Charli XCX), the popstar in the making announces on her networks in the midst of a pandemic that she is working on a very personal album of which she is particularly proud. The fans then see in this future disc the key which will allow the whole world to become aware of the singular talent of their idol. The expectation is immense. The surprise will be monumental. Miles away from all our projections, Caroline Polachek manages to strip herself almost completely of the melancholy of her past records to give life to a solar, luminous and could not be more sincere album.
The singer having always presented herself as a “curious music lover”, it does not seem surprising that the album most “in her image” of her discography brilliantly mixes a very large number of genres and relatively distant influences, a mixture giving birth to a unique, singular sound, a Polachek sound. Because yes, if we have to recognize something about this disc, it is its gigantic and phenomenal musical palette. The mix of genres is sublimated, the disc brings together alternative pop, EDM, hip-hop, R&B, disco, African music, flamenco, and so on. On “Crude Drawing of an Angel” we have the impression of hearing Grace Slick of the Jefferson Airplane sing an alternate version of “White Rabbit” on a prod by The Chainsmokers. Yes, we are there. Everything is beautifully strange and seems obvious once you mix it up. This brilliant association is made possible by the talent of Danny L Harle (the man with the ominous face carrying the baby in the background of the cover, yes yes), the ex-PC Music become the standard-bearer of a new pop which is not shy.
And Pang was a good record without taking much risk, Desire, I Want To Turn Into You turns out to be a monumental fresco uniting all of the artist’s musical influences in a coherent and harmonious way. Even if the disc does not yet allow Polachek to access the worldwide notoriety that his fans wish him, it will at least have allowed us to realize that it is still possible to lay perfectly produced electropop records in 2023. And that is worth much more than the notoriety of Dua Lipa.
