The pop music industry has been overtaken by vapid, monotonous humming.
Aspiring stars’ voices are warped to sound illusory, warbling uninspiring words that appear computer-generated.
In the midst of the largely colorless business, the underrated and upcoming Caroline Polachek paints neon hues through the creative concepts and vitalizing vocals of her artistic sound.
Her art, which exhibits elements reminiscent of Charli XCX and Grimes’s work, is a rejuvenating addition to the continuously uniform and tried genre of pop. Beginning her musical career in the early 2010s in the band Chairlift, Polachek went on to perform solo under the alter-ego of Ramona Lisa. In 2019, she released her debut album, Pang, under her real name.
This February, in celebration of the first anniversary of her sophomore album—Desire, I Want To Turn Into You—Polachek released the Everasking Edition of the record. Containing six new tracks, one acoustic rendition, and a collaboration with ethereal vocalist Weyes Blood, the Everasking Edition offers up hidden jewels initially excluded from Polachek’s already gem-filled record.
Launched as a single the week before the anniversary edition came out, “Butterfly Net (feat. Weyes Blood)” constitutes an idiosyncratic, yet ideal, female pop collaboration between two unorthodox musicians.
Weyes Blood’s psychedelic folk style could easily be considered the loosely related, pensive cousin to Polachek’s more upbeat, energetic ambiance—their sounds’ correlation allows for a well-fused work.
In the bittersweet, otherworldy anthem, they articulate the struggle of trying to hold onto intangible objects, impalpable things that slip through the mesh of their metaphorical butterfly net.
In the chorus, Polachek sings, “There I was / With my butterfly net / Trying to catch your light,” likely referring to attention or love from a partner she futilely attempts to harness.
The song maintains the winged-creature theme throughout its course, including in the third verse where she sings, “Heaven help me / Take this bag of wings / And drown it in the Thames,” expressing the song’s topic of abandoning tendencies to hang on to souvenirs.
As the second new track, incorporating a cover into the Everasking Edition, Polachek added her rendition of the seasonal, idealistic tune, “Spring Is Coming With a Strawberry in the Mouth” to the record.
True to its name, the melodious, ethereal remake provides an anthem for the quickly approaching season and has found its rightful place in my playlist for the quintessential spring feelings.
Released by Roger Doyle in 1986, Polachek revitalizes the buoyant tune, proving the older track to fit perfectly with the world of 2024 electropop-esque music. The original features background, opera-adjacent vocals that Polachek recreates, producing a sound similar to that of the late 20th-century dream pop trio, the Cocteau Twins.
For her seventh new song, Polachek and producer Oneohtrix Point Never collaborate for the expeditious track, “Long Road Home.”
Stringed instruments accompany Polacek’s vocal introduction, creating an intense foundation for the number and evoking a sense of stress in the listener.
The song’s—relatively finite—lyrics contest with the overarching electronic aura as shown in the verse lyrics, “Doesn’t the sky look like maps to our house? / Doesn’t the sea look so empty? / Even my dreams kissed in digital gloss /It’s my reality.”
Along with her new music, Polachek released the anniversary record with a modern, more subdued cover that encompasses similar elements of the original album’s artwork. In the initial release, she is pictured crawling on the sand-coated floor of a subway car, glaring off to the left, determination clearly displayed on her face. Through the niche set and Polachek’s confident manner, the image foreshadows the self-assured narrative of the album’s contents.
On her 2024 release, Polachek is again pictured on a subway, however, she now sits on a bench with her knees pulled into her chest. Caught with her eyes closed, carelessly half-turned away from the camera, the photographer seems to be intruding upon a pensive journey of reflection. She appears detached from her—likely metropolitan—surroundings, engrossed in her headphones’s music.
Polachek’s artistic orchestration, both within her music and through her creative direction, solidifies her as one of the most innovative and futuristically chic artists of the ethereal pop genre. The tracks from the Everasking Edition bring listeners into her world, allowing for a taste of the work that will soon overtake the pop music industry.
