Caroline Polachek

Don't forget about Taylor Swift's "Clean."

Heap's influence on modern pop was covered in this pitchfork piece and Polachek's vocals are mentioned: "You can hear Heap in the slippery, divine runs of the classically-trained art-pop virtuoso Caroline Polachek, who inflects so precisely that she sounds as if she’s using Auto-Tune when she’s not."

Just put on Speak for Yourself for the first time in ages and it sounds fantastic. Had no recollection of how layered "Goodnight and Go" is, nor the delightfully weird instrumental bridge.

I Megaphone (Imogen's debut) is also perhaps the archetypal example of a late nineties debut sounding like a Spin article about electronica vomited rainbows on the arrangements - this is not a criticism exactly, though it's certainly a bit clunkier than Ray of Light or Kylie's Impossible Princess or Tori's From The Choirgirl Hotel (which, remarkably given the resemblances, Imogen and her producers could not have heard before finishing the album).

Speak for Yourself is a strong album. I still listen to it now and then and Caroline's autotune-like vocal glides sound just like her

Everything else Imogen Heap has done before and after that album is a letdown by comparison, excepting a couple Frou Frou songs. Really a one-album wonder

OK "Butterfly Net" hooked me this time through. I just needed to slow down enough to appreciate the melody.

Second listen…

The songs that start with “B” are the best ones for me by far: Butterfly Net, Bunny, Billions, Blood and Butter.

I lied before, there is some filler: Crude drawing and hopedrunk are it, but they’re sequenced very smart in the album and serve as darker, moody, palette cleansers from the more brighter songs in between them.

All the goodwill I had for Grimes is gone completely and she ruins “fly to you” for me. Wish either Grimes was completely gone off this record or Dido was a feature on another song without her, Dido works but her only verse in there isn’t enough to make me want to listen to Grimes in 2023. Only skippable song for me on second listen.

Had the same thought about the Grimes feature. Unfortunate.

"Smoke" is a highlight for me, too.

Polachek sounds terrific.

if anyone was going to do a 2020s equivalent of "Hide And Seek" it would be Caroline Polachek

― boxedjoy, Tuesday, February 14, 2023 5:25 PM (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=psSIJig_xnY

RYM really likes this eh

I suppose I'll have to see if it's a bit more enjoyable this time

I'm liking this album so far, but every time "Hopedrunk Everasking" comes on, it sets me on edge because there is a little high pitched ping noise that sounds exactly like my smoke detector flickering on and off, which it does whenever I have a power outage.

lol

That's the track I skip.

i know this makes me sound like an old grump but I wish she'd lay off the autotune on her vocals; she doesn't need it obviously and it's done for aesthetic effect only, but it wears on my ears. does she need to use it on every single song?

there is a little high pitched ping noise that sounds exactly like my smoke detector flickering on and off

lol for me it sounds like a squeak our dryer makes sometimes, and so far every time that song comes on (when I'm at home, anyway) my first thought is that there's a load of clothes in there.

re autotune, I recognize that it's present but honestly I barely notice it — it feels of a piece with her whole sonic conception.

Gonna get on my soapbox for this one. As you kind of note, autotune (and similar processors) is generally used for 2 different purposes: correcting tuning and as a special effect. The first time I heard it used as an effect was on "Believe" by Cher some 25 years ago, so it's been around a long time! Now is it a bit of a cliche to use it as an effect at this point? Maybe, maybe not. But I would note that no one ever comments on other effects that are used on pretty much every single vocal recording like reverb, delay, compression, etc. It is just another in the arsenal of effects that are available and used constantly and should be seen as part of the landscape rather than something on which it is worth taking a polemical stance.

Yeah I agree with that, I've actually enjoyed the way all sorts of different musicians are playing with autotune as an effect. It doesn't always work — sometimes it's distracting — but used well it adds another texture.

Also I agree with the above sentiments about Hopedrunk and Crude Drawing, I think they work in the flow of the album but they are kind of meh as songs.

Yeah "Crude Drawing" is kind of a nothing track. I'm also not big on "I Believe". Ultimately the album falls a little short of Pang to me, but I do like that it's more ambitious than Pang and hope she keeps stretching on future material

“I Believe” doesn’t quite work for me. It feels too upbeat for her if it makes sense.

I’d probably rank them as

4/5 stars
Bunny
Blood
Billions
Butterflly

3/5
The rest

Haha yes the "B"-sides are the best

I love those synth stabs in "I Believe," but those things are my language

Glad I'm not alone in immediately latching on to "Butterfly Net."

My pick for standout track is still "Sunset." I can't remember whether I already said this upthread, but it gives me heavy "Ojos Así" vibes.

It almost turns into a Shakira track1

Ah yeah Sunset is cool too, I didn’t bother ranking all the tracklist but that one would probably next in line after the “B sides”

Pretty good review, making the Enya/Pure Moods connection: https://www.theatlantic.com/culture/archive/2023/02/caroline-polachek-desire-turn-into-you-album-review/673129/

Along those lines, I like somewhat muted use of the Funky Drummer beat on "Pretty In Possible," very '90s chill room.

Hard disagree with the consensus so far on Crude Drawing of an Angel. It's one of the highlights of the album for sure. Superb mid-1980s David Sylvian vibes.

Comparing in general is lazy - I know because I try to make connections all the time and I’m lazy - but the Kate Bush comparisons I see so frequently about her feel very lazy to me. It just feels like the catch-all reference for kooky white women in a solo career.

I mean yeah she probably loves Kate Bush but I don’t really hear her as one of her main influences on this album or any of her past work.

I mean I myself compared her as filling the Kate Bush role for this generation.

But in reality - as observed in this thread - vocally she sounds more influenced by Imogen Heap.

Anyways haven’t revisited this one, it felt like a spring album to me, so I’ll wait a couple of months and I’ll go back to it.

yeah I think the KB comparisons were maybe slightly more apt for some of hear earlier work but not here...though I guess sunset recalls eat the music a bit.

Superb mid-1980s David Sylvian vibes

I'm in

"crude drawing of an angel" is actually probably her most actually kate bush track ever, would be right at home on the dreaming or hounds of love. otherwise yeah the comparison isn't particularly direct or useful

Love that one. That "camera one, camera two" business is great

My dad texted me the other day, very excited because he had just learned that Caroline Polachek's grandfather was Slovak.

your dad knows who caroline polachek is?

I was as surprised as you! We share music recommendations fairly often, but I'm pretty sure I have never brought her up to him before (didn't think she'd be to his taste, shows what I know!!)

I saw her concert last night, it was quite an experience. George Clanton opened, a fun surprise, he's a mischievous scamp projecting L.A. stoner vibes. His set was more alt rock than I would have expected, almost like Deftones if they had chill synths instead of loud guitars, with a fun LED background flashing images of pot leafs, pentagrams, and Bowser from Mario.

Despite following Polachek since the Chairlift years, I was still caught by surprise at how DRAMATIC everything was. She played all the songs you'd expect, and they all had big dance moves throughout. The crowd was super intense, screaming and dancing along to every single song. I thought some of the more mid-tempo groovy numbers came across particularly well because the music gave her a bit more space, and the several of the slow atmospheric ballads put across a very strong Twin Peaks/Julee Cruise vibe. My only minor disappointment is that she didn't do any Chairlift songs, but I figured that would be the case.

There's definitely this uncanny valley thing going on with her voice, I was wondering throughout how much she was actually singing vs lipsyncing. I'm pretty sure she really was singing it all, but it's such a wild combination of super acrobatic, perfectly executed vocals through a mass of effects, that it's hard to believe it's real. I don't think I've ever heard someone in a big pop or rock concert sing with that level of skill before.

Also, I'm pretty sure the new album is the best thing she's done, it's amazing to see how ambitious she's gotten with her singing over the years. I don't think the earlier Chairlift albums really showed off her range, but maybe she's also just become more skillful over time.

This is a decent quality video of a recent show that's fairly identical to what I saw:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=onD5ycsuFy8

George Clanton opened

I saw the tour in Athens, Ga., on Saturday, and yeah, really dug it. We only caught the last few songs of George Clanton, but he was fun. Polachek's video projections and little bit of stage decoration did a good job of setting a bit of an otherworldly scene. "Welcome to My Island" was the logical set opener and very much gave off a Circe vibe, like she was casting a spell. The crowd was sold out and about what I expected, indie-hipster with strong queer component. People knew every word — not that hard when all the material came from two albums, I guess. I liked her stage persona, friendly but a little ethereal, and her arm choreography in particular was intricate and impressive. (My wife worried a bit about her skinniness, but I'll give her the benefit of the doubt that she's taking care of herself, she seems to have her act together pretty well.)

Good show.

A friend of mine tells me his daughter in an MFA program is complaining that "Caroline Polachek is all you ever hear" at art school these days, which tracks.

Re: The uncanny valley: many people in the comments of this interview losing their shit over the "vocal thing" that happens around 2:30

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wj-XPN0Yj24

What are they saying? Don't feel like clicking.

She calls it "vocal flipping", almost sounds like a vocal getting chopped and pitched up in real time, or real time auto-tune, pretty crazy.

Feel like I need to ask somebody now. Will get back to you.

It sounds insane. Always thought there was a great deal of autotune in several of her vocal runs but now I’m not sure.

xp

Jordan explained exactly what she does, not sure why someone else would need to describe it

Um, are the ILX Doubting Thomas Police or would you like to be?

are you

I don't want to misquote Jordan, but my reading of what he wrote was he was describin what it sounded like, not what she was actually doing.