Album Review: Caroline Polachek is Down Bad on ‘Desire, I Want To Turn Into You’
Hyperpop heavyweight Caroline Polachek explores what it truly means to desperately want someone on her recent project Desire, I Want To Turn Into You. The highly anticipated record blows expectations out of the water with ethereal production, sonic versatility, and her signature falsetto.
Written by Adam Cherian
Photo courtesy of Perpetual Novice
Having a crush is one of the most relatable experiences a person can have: The feeling of being ignored can ruin one's day, and any interaction can lighten the occasion. This yearning, however, quickly evolves into obsession. Every waking moment is about this person, this feeling that they give you, the rush. The feelings might even be scary, and yet it’s so euphoric that you can’t stop. Put this obsession into sound waves and Caroline Polachek’s Desire, I Want To Turn Into You is what you get.
The 37-year-old American singer-songwriter released Desire, her second album under her own name, on Valentine’s Day. Fitting, as the record epically displays yearning in ways audiences have not yet seen from Polachek. Given the album's name, desire is all over the tracklist: desire for a person, sex, elation, any form of love is what Polachek deeply wants. And she’s willing to die for it, as seen on the album cover in which she crawls on a New York City subway floor (truly a drastic action).
Desire starts off with an aptly named opener, “Welcome To My Island,” in which Polachek invites the listener to get stuck in her own mind. The song is tongue-in-cheek, with the singer admitting that she’s so obsessed with this person that it’s isolating. She compares being trapped in one's own head to being on a deserted island. The song features her signature wailing falsettos combined with dramatic guitars and a repetitive chorus where the most prominent lyrics repeat the album’s title.
Photo courtesy of Perpetual Novice
Directly after “Welcome To My Island” is the trip-hop stream-of-consciousness banger “Pretty in Possible.” The track takes obvious influence from 2000s electropop artists like Imogen Heap, as well as dreamier, more mellow artists like Dido (who coincidentally is on this album). The track accurately represents the jumbled mess of the infatuated mind. No clear chorus or verse appears except for the repeated line, “I was born to get you home,” reflecting how obsession overtakes Polachek.
Love finds itself all over Desire. Polachek has a way of putting the complicated feelings of warm fuzzy intimacy into sound in ways that many artists dream of. Songs like “I Believe” and “Fly To Me” act as the snuggly core of the album, giving the illusion of sailing across peaceful waters. Both of these tracks are reassuring, like the love that Polachek hopes will come.
This rings especially true in “I Believe,” which is about the singer’s friendship with late electronic producer and trans trailblazer SOPHIE, who died unexpectedly in Jan. 2021. The track opens with Polachek bluntly saying, “Look over the edge, but not too far,” which can be interpreted as a rather insensitive comment about the way that SOPHIE died, but seeing as they were friends, it most likely is a cheeky yet sentimental send-off to SOPHIE for always being ahead of the producer’s time. It’s an emotional tribute to the artist, using trip-hop beats to declare that one they will meet again in the afterlife. With dramatic synths and U.K. drum and bass sensibilities, this track is a standout on this already incredible album.
Photo courtesy of Lindsey Ellary
“Fly To Me,” featuring Grimes and Dido, sounds like paragliding over an endless ocean. The song stays true to the theme of reassurance, always “flying back” to the one they love. It’s about the warm feeling one gets from knowing that they always have someone there for them even if they are in conflict, with Dido singing, “I'm looking for something / That nobody else can see / Remember what's come before / Not loaded with regret.”
Desire’s closer, “Billions,” wraps the record up with a ribbon and bow. Feelings of pure entanglement, presumably with two lovers, evokes proper closure. Almost resembling Bjӧrk’s Vespertine, the track features a child’s choir gracefully chanting “I never felt so close to you,” giving the impression of a final union of two people, someone getting the love they desired so much. The listener can get lost in the track. With seven total verses and only two instances of the chorus repeating, it’s another experimental song structure from Polachek that shows that she’s a master of finding new ways to get her sentiments across.
Polachek can now claim a Magnum Opus in Desire. A brilliant album that showcases the singer’s interdimensional sound, this record is unconventional, subversive, and sonically unique. Polachek took the feeling of love and transformed it into 12 unique tracks, all embodying different aspects of the same emotion.