Caroline Polachek Album Reviews

Caroline Polachek grew up in Connecticut and was formerly the vocalist for the indie-pop duo Chairlift. Chairlift enjoyed a surprise hit in 2008 with ‘Bruises’, featured in an Apple commercial. Polachek previously flirted with a solo career, releasing albums under the aliases Ramona Lisa and CEP, but 2019’s Pang was her first record under her own name.

Polachek’s solo music neatly straddles a line between pop music and art-rock, so Kate Bush is an easy comparison. More unexpectedly, there are also traces of Enya. A hyperactive child, her parents played her music from the Irish easy-listening queen to calm her down. Polachek spent five years in Tokyo as a child, and Japanese folk music is also an influence. She names Prefab Sprout‘s Paddy McAloon as her favourite lyricist.

Polachek has flirted with mainstream success, writing a tune for Beyoncé and enjoying TikTok exposure with ‘So Hot You’re Hurting My Feelings’. But she’s too weird and too smart to enjoy sustained commercial success.

Caroline Polachek Album Reviews

Arcadia (as Ramona Lisa)

2014, 7.5/10
Polachek recorded her first solo album while still a member of Chairlift. She used the alias Ramona Lisa, explaining “Ramona Lisa is a format; she’s not a person, she’s more like a genre or maybe more like a screenplay. It’s like a set of images, motifs and shapes that kind of all work together for me.”

Polachek began Arcadia during an artistic residency at the Villa Medici in Rome, Italy. Inspired by her time in Rome, Polachek created organic-sounding electronic music. Arcadia was recorded entirely on Polachek’s laptop, without instruments. She sang into her laptop’s inbuilt microphone, using hotel closets, quiet airport gates, and spare dressing rooms during a Chairlift tour.

Arcadia feels like a side project, but it’s satisfying. With a slicker arrangement, ‘Dominic’ could have easily fitted on Chairlift’s Something. The title track sets the scene with ambient field recordings from Rome, before transforming into a haunting song. ‘Getaway Ride (Cha Cha Cha)’ is catchy, despite the experimental sound.

Arcadia is a substantial side project, balancing pop hooks with experimentation.

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Drawing the Target Around the Arrow (as CEP)

2017
Polachek’s second album is all-instrumental. It was released as a free download a month after Chairlift’s breakup.

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Pang

2019, 8.5/10
Polachek recorded Pang with producers from the London collective PC Music, as well as New York producer Daniel Nigro. A similar crew worked on recent records by Charli XCX and Carly Rae Jepsen. But Polachek favours artier, spacier music. Ethereal art-pop dominates the tone of Pang, although it also features straightforward pop moments.

According to an interview with The Guardian, Polachek experienced adrenal rushes that interfered with her sleep. She referred to them as “pangs” and attempted to recreate the feeling in her music – the project was initially planned as warm and folk-tinged. Polachek also compares her experience making Pang to Joni Mitchell’s Hejira – at the end of a marriage, she felt a need to escape from New York.

Unusually, the pop hooks are buried towards the end of the record. ‘Door’ was the first single, a pretty, meandering melody, with meditative lyrics like “Who is the you who I sing to/When the house is empty?” ‘So Hot You’re Hurting My Feelings’ is the most overt pop song, with its memorable “Get a little lonely” hook and Polachek’s excitable gasps.

The more ethereal songs sound surprisingly like Enya. Songs like ‘Look At Me Now’ and ‘Go As A Dream’ are gorgeous, with Polachek using her lovely voice to emote pretty tunes.

Pang presents Polachek’s pop sense and ethereal moments in a unified fashion. It’s one of my favourite records from 2021.

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Desire, I Want to Turn Into You

2023, 9/10
Caroline Polachek released her official solo debut Pang in 2019. She’d previously dabbed with solo records under pen names during her time with Chairlift. Desire has been slipping quietly out for a while – ‘Bunny is a Rider’ was a single back in 2021.

Where Pang balanced pop and art-rock sides, Desire emphasises the pop aspects of Polachek’s music. Polachek lost her father during the first wave of COVID-19. An academic. he felt Polachek squandered her talents making pop music.

I am my father’s daughter in the end
He says watch your ego, watch your head girl
You’re so smart so talented
But now the water’s turning red
And it’s all your fault and it’s all your mess
And you’re all alone can’t go to bed

Again, Enya is an influence – the Celtic break on ‘Blood and Butter’ is the most obvious example. She’s also covered The Corrs, while Dido guests on this record. The arty pop of Kate Bush is also an obvious reference point for Polachek – Bush also dabbled in Celtic influences on her 1980s records. There’s also Spanish guitar on the excellent ‘Sunset’, while the organ of ‘Butterfly Net’ recalls the ambient swirl of Pink Floyd.

Desire, I Want To Turn Into You is a confident second album, with Polachek at the peak of her artistic powers.

Best Carolyn Polachek Songs

So Hot You’re Hurting My Feelings
Butterfly Net
Door
Bunny is a Rider
Welcome to My Island
Dominic
Sunset