A Crash Course in Caroline Polachek
In preparation for the arrival of Desire, I Want To Turn Into You, here’s a guide to her sprawling discography.
My excitement cannot be contained for Desire, I Want To Turn Into You, the new Caroline Polachek record arriving this Valentine’s Day. (Not like I’m counting the days, but it’s been over 1200 since Pang.) In the meanwhile, I’ll be marathoning everything she’s released so far (and writing about it, as you can tell).
Polachek’s discography is actually quite expansive; many listeners don’t realize she has released six albums under four different names across her career. In this post, I’ll provide an in-depth chronological walk-through of her work and i.d. her most essential releases. (I suppose calling it a “crash course” was false advertising… but I included a tl;dr at the end of each section if you’re a skimmer.)
Chairlift – Does You Inspire You (2008)
The tiny debut record that spawned a massive commercial synch
Polachek started out as part of Chairlift, a trio formed with musicians Patrick Wimberly and Aaron Pfenning at the height of the “indie sleaze” glory days. Apple took note of their debut LP’s standout track, “Bruises,” and put it in an iPod commercial, launching Polachek’s young band straight into an elite class of storied indie royalty.
Does You Inspire You is a solid debut record, but in hindsight, only hints at the brilliance that would follow. The record can be a bit… twee. If you know me, you know that I am vehemently opposed to anything twee on principle. However, I do make exceptions when necessary.
First of all, listening to pretty much any album from that 2000s MySpace era of indie requires a stifling of my anti-twee reflexes. The aesthetic was all over the Pitchfork scene, from whimsical handcrafted album covers and music videos to kooky paragraph-length song titles. It’s critical to note that the semblance of tweeness can be counterbalanced by genuine excellence. Sure, Regina Spektor will make dolphin noises on occasion and Joanna Newsom does have a tendency to sing about woodland creatures, but to dismiss either artist on those idiosyncrasies alone would truly be a shame.
However, the few cuts of charming twee-lite synth pop like “Bruises” and “Evident Utensil” are something of a red herring anyway. Most of the songs on the album actually veer into a moody, experimental territory, a sort of twangy, spaced-out, lo-fi dream pop with new age flair.
Polachek has come to be known for her show-stopping visuals in her photoshoots, music videos, and album graphics, but her attention to aesthetics wasn’t showcased quite as much in Chairlift’s debut era. In particular, the album cover is objectively unappealing: a low-res, poorly lit JPEG of what I assume are the band members’ hands. Nonetheless, the visual for “Evident Utensil” is still a delightfully creative acid trip, incorporating a psychedelic video manipulation technique known as DataMoshing.
tl;dr
It’s not an essential listen, but an intriguing one if you’re interested in Polachek’s earliest musical origins.
RIYL: The iPod-era, indie sleaze, MySpace, Regina Spektor, Feist, lo-fi dream pop, flying saucer hats, JPEG artifacts
Chairlift – Something (2012)
Sophomore slump? Never heard of her.
By 2012, the trio became a duo of just Wimberly and Polachek, and Chairlift was all the better for it. Their second album was a major glow up and still holds up eleven years on.
Something is an immaculately crafted, straightforward pop record. It exists squarely within that early 2010s niche of upbeat indie pop channeling the spirit of the 1980s, i.e. HAIM’s Days Are Gone or Blood Orange’s Cupid Deluxe.1
The record’s best known single is perhaps “I Belong In Your Arms,” a euphoric new wave-inspired, no-holds-barred love song which just had a mini revival thanks to a well-placed synch in Netflix’s Heartstopper. It still ranks in the S-Tier of Polachek’s discography. However, many of the other tracks on Something reach similar heights, like the gleeful rush of “Met Before,” the tongue-twisting rhythms of “Amanaemonesia,” and the sleek and twinkling “Take It Out On Me.”
This record has its ethereal, dreamy moments, too. The murky “Turning” sounds like it belongs on the score for LAIKA’s Coraline, while “Cool As A Fire” is an airy and gorgeous trip-hop ballad.
Something also saw Polachek introduce her signature, highly meme-able dancing style into her art, which has remained a staple ever since.
tl;dr
An expertly crafted LP of heartwarming ‘80s-inspired pop.
RIYL: HAIM, “Everywhere” by Fleetwood Mac, the normcore aesthetic, city pop, Heartstopper, sidewalk safaris, joyful love songs
Beyoncé – “No Angel” (2013)
An unexpected collaboration between Caroline Polachek and Queen B
In 2012, Polachek and Wimberly, who was working with Solange, were invited to the studio to contribute to Beyonce’s self-titled album.
The Chairlift duo submitted several songs that didn’t make the cut. The one that did was “No Angel,” a song Polachek wrote and produced on her own in Ableton several years before.
Beyoncé used everything Polachek gave her, but slightly restructured the song, inserting a rapped verse by James Fauntleroy, while also handling the vocal production. “No Angel” was included as track 4 on the final album. Ten years later, it’s still one of Bey’s most experimental ventures, an unconventional, downtempo chillwave song featuring her breathiest falsetto over dramatic heavy bass. Though Polachek has never released her original demo of the song, she has been known to play “No Angel” in her live concerts on occasion.
tl;dr
A seismic crossover event – one of Bey’s greatest deep cuts which also showcases Polachek’s talent writing and producing for other artists.
RIYL: Beyoncé (2013), atmospheric trip-hop, “Two Weeks” by FKA twigs, songs that seem impossible to sing
Ramona Lisa – Arcadia (2014)
The secret solo debut
In between Chairlift records, Polachek began a side project under the pseudonym Ramona Lisa. Technically, Arcadia is her debut solo record, and though this album often gets overlooked, it rivals her newer work in terms of quality and ambition.
The Arcadia era not only featured enchanting “pastoral electronic” bangers and ambient compositions, but also ornate worldbuilding, mesmerizing visuals, and an entire library of meticulously choreographed dance routines. She opted to forgo overt commercial appeal and indulge her artistic impulses in every respect, releasing with Terrible Records instead of Columbia to fully realize her vision.
Arcadia is particularly impressive because it was solely written and produced by Polachek while on tour – the record was literally recorded on her laptop using its shitty built-in speaker and various MIDI instruments. Despite its lo-fi origins, the final product sounds phenomenal. In other words, Arcadia is like the aural equivalent of recreating the Mona Lisa with crayons.
When I’m feeling uninspired, I love to revisit the (now-retired) @theeramonalisa IG account, a true relic of early Instagram where Polachek collaged random paintings and her own creative photo shoots into an entire aesthetic library.
tl;dr
An excellent, ridiculously underrated art pop + ambient album for fans of Polachek’s more avant-garde leanings.
RIYL: MIDI instruments, electronic music, cicadas, the city of Rome, field recordings, medieval aesthetics, surrealism, bangs, ladies with gills
Chairlift – Moth (2016)
Bombastic alt-pop with a bite
Chairlift’s third record turned out to be their last, but it is also their best. Moth is an irresistible, catchy collection of eclectic electro-pop and alt-R&B. Like 2012’s Something, most of Moth consists of effervescent love songs. The record also feels like a celebration of New York City, as suggested by the opalescent skyline on the album cover painted by Rebecca Bird.
Moth delivers a trail of perfect pop tunes – there’s the three track run of “Polymorphing,” “Romeo,” and “Ch-Ching,” as well as the late album highlights “Moth To A Flame” and “Show U Off.” “Crying In Public” remains one of the most beautiful in Polachek’s arsenal of melodramatic midtempo ballads, with lyrics apologizing for “causing a scene on the train” and admitting that she is falling in love with someone new.
Like its predecessors, Moth also makes space for some ethereal weirdness, like on the brief opener “Look Up,” the glitchy shuffle of “Ottawa to Osaka,” and the 6 minute plus “No Such Thing As Illusion.”
Side note – one of my favorite random morsels from the Moth era is this bizarre ASMR unboxing posted to YouTube by a user named “Polly Mauphing.”
tl;dr
Chairlift’s most accomplished project and home to many of Polachek’s career-best and funnest songs.
RIYL: New York City, Art Angels (2015), crying in public, overflowing emotions, moths, running shoes, cracking combinations
Danny L Harle – “Ashes of Love” (2016)
Caroline Polachek’s first foray into the world of PC Music
In 2016, the experimental London-based label PC Music was on the come-up, and were reigning in mainstream-adjacent pop singers for high-profile collaborations, including Carly Rae Jepsen, Clairo, and Charli XCX. Caroline Polachek also became part of this wave, after PC Music OG Danny L Harle reached out to her.
Their first song together was the terrific “Ashes of Love,” but unlike DLH’s collab with CRJ, it didn’t turn out to be a one-off. This song ultimately foreshadowed the trajectory of Polachek’s solo career, as Harle would go on to become her primary collaborator.
tl;dr
“Ashes of Love” proved to be a critical turning point in Polachek’s discography and marks her shift towards hyperpop, similar to the role of “Vroom Vroom” in Charli XCX’s career.
RIYL: PC Music, video game soundtracks, key changes, nightcore, flames
CEP – Drawing The Target Around The Arrow (2017)
An ambient record composed entirely of sine waves
This sparse electronic instrumental record was released under Polachek’s initials and is really just an LP-length flex of her production muscles. I won’t go much deeper into this one, but it’s a great record to put on when you want to focus.
RIYL: ambient, electronic music, nature sounds, white noise, minimalism, “useful music” for working or reading
Charli XCX – “Tears” (2017)
The first PolacheXCX collab
If “Ashes of Love” suggested that Polachek was meant to cross over to the hyperpop scene, then “Tears” declared that there was no turning back.
The song is an explosive duet between Polachek and Charli XCX and featured as track 4 on the revolutionary Pop 2 mixtape. Produced by PC Music labelhead A.G. Cook, “Tears” pushes Polachek’s rapturous vocal talent beyond its physical limits with aid of AutoTune, to thrilling effect. Amongst the overwhelming glitching and robotic filters, Polachek lets out an massive, pained shriek towards the song’s midpoint that couldn’t be more human.
PolacheXCX have gone on to collaborate frequently, like on 2021’s “New Shapes” and the recent “Welcome to My Island” remix.
tl;dr
A fan-favorite duet between two hyperpop icons which cemented Polachek as a permanent member of the PC Music team.
RIYL: Pop 2 (2017), “I Like America & America Likes Me,” by The 1975, screaming, crying in the club, PC Music, hyperpop, catharsis
Caroline Polachek – Pang (2019)
A masterclass in art pop by the so-called Perpetual Novice
One band and two pseudonymous side projects later, Polachek finally debuted music under her own name in 2019. Widely regarded as a contemporary art pop landmark, Pang fuses every genre she has ever dabbled in – namely synth pop, hyperpop, electronic, and ambient music – and then some.
Pang is considered her divorce album, as it features some introspective breakup songs, but even so, a handful of brighter tracks celebrating newfound love and friendship are thrown into the mix. Despite this, it is still a mind-bendingly cohesive concept album, woven together with careful precision.
Case in point – I’ve been listening to this album for over three years at this point, and every time I do, I discover a delicate new detail. For instance, “So Hot You’re Hurting My Feelings” calls back to the melody of album opener “The Gate,” while “Insomnia” and “Parachute” act as companion songs. Interpolations of the “Parachute” melody also appear on “Caroline Shut Up” and “Door.”
The tracks on Pang often have a shapeshifting, gravity-defying quality. “New Normal,” a sweet ode to her platonic love for Harle, is the impossible architecture of Escher paintings set to song, a chorus-less country tune that constantly “tumbles and resets.” There’s the infinitely recursive “Door,” a twisting love song with some of her greatest poetry, where she inquires “Who is the you who I sing to / When the house is empty?” Pang also spawned Polachek’s best known contemporary single, the off-kilter pop song “So Hot You’re Hurting My Feelings,” which became something of a sleeper hit thanks to a viral TikTok dance.
The visual world of this album is equally divine, described by Polachek herself as “expressionist storybook goth.” The era embraced magical realism and retrofuturism with recurring motifs including iron gates, greyhounds, keys, mirrors, and ladders.
In between the releases of Pang and Desire, Polachek also dropped a collection of stunning remixes in 2021 that pushed the record farther into hyperpop territory, collaborating with PC Music legends such as oklou, umru, and, of course, A.G. Cook, alongside an experimental cover of The Corrs’ staple Y2K banger “Breathless.” She also indulged her Enya side with a meditative 10-minute rework of “The Gate” designed to seamlessly loop forever.
I could go on endlessly about how excellent this cult classic record is, but I promise to spare you for now. For all of Pang’s splendor, I fear that Desire will ultimately top it as her masterpiece. We shall see.
tl;dr
Unequivocally one of the greatest albums of the 2010s decade and a monumental achievement in contemporary art pop.
RIYL: Imogen Heap, Escher paintings, iron rod, The Legend of Zelda, adrenaline, the ‘90s, Disneyland, Björk, tarot cards, Myst, lucid dreaming, Rubik’s cubes, bananas
Alright, I made it to the end. But where do I begin?
If you’re new, the best place to start in Caroline Polachek’s discography is definitely Pang. It contains some of her finest work in a neat 46 minute capsule, while also being an extensive synthesis of her favorite musical styles.
Thank you for reading! Expect a long, hyperbolic, and totally unsolicited album review of Desire next week… •
Polachek is actually featured on Cupid Deluxe, offering backing vocals to “Chamakay” and “Chosen.”