Desire, I Want to Turn Into You is the much-anticipated sophomore album from art pop visionary, Caroline Polachek. The rollout for this album has been quite a tumultuous time for fans of Caroline’s music, with the first single being released all the way back to November 2021 with subsequent singles being drip fed until about the end of 2022 when the album was formally announced. While Caroline’s solo discography is quite limited, her influence is found all around this current era of underground pop music whether it be with her previous band Chairlift, her collaborations with the experimental PC Music label, or with other pop icons such as Charli XCX, Beyoncé, and Christine and the Queens. Luckily, this album might just be the best pop album of the year with lush and warm production from Danny L Harle (of PC Music fame) and Caroline penning her most catchy and creative songs to date.  

Right from the first song “Welcome to My Island”, Caroline ropes in the listener with her siren-like calls just as the song explodes into this vast, triumphant anthem as Caroline belts out the album's title. This song has an obvious 80s synthpop, freestyle influence and yet it’s tweaked and layered in such a way that it sounds modern, possibly even futuristic. This is a common thread of this album; there are callbacks to the pop-isms of the 80s, 90s, and 00s but it never comes off as tacky or self-indulgent. Fans of Charli XCX’s self-titled pop-opus from 2019 will immediately click with the similar approach to production. Not to mention “Fly to You” featuring Grimes and Dido (!?) which has an awesome 2-step beat and is executed well with these features.   One song that I feel does not get enough love from other listeners is the track “Crude Drawing of an Angel” which is one of two very subtle tracks on this album. I love the very tribal-ambient percussion on the verses and how they transition to these very crystalline synths that are damp with reverb. Caroline’s singing on this track is just the icing on the cake as her voice just soars over the instrumentation, almost as if she’s wailing with sorrow. Caroline’s vocal talents are borderline virtuosic, I really do not understand how she effortlessly hits these notes, but it never comes off as if she’s showing off, she’s always keenly aware of how to utilize her versatile voice. I finally just want to point out the closer, “Billions”. I never quite “got” this song when it was released as a single in early 2022, and I was even more perplexed to learn that it was the closer. However, within the context of this album, I find that this is honestly a top, if not the best moment of this album. I find its power to keep restraint while always teetering on escalating extremely commendable. Not to mention, Caroline’s lyrics are so mysterious and yet there is some subtle power with her choice of diction and phrasing that it encourages the listener to come up with their own meanings. This song perfectly wraps up the running themes of Desire and the way it can become a twisted, manic, and lustful obsession. I genuinely could talk about every song in depth, but I think the best thing I can do is urge you to listen to this record.  

I would say my only downside is I find the songs “Hopedrunk Everasking” and “Butterfly Net” to be just a tad too drawn out and create a small lull in the track list as they land next to each other near the end of the album. I still find merit to these songs within their production (have I mentioned how much I love how this album sounds) but I think they are just a bit too minimal and plain for my liking when every other song has some stand-out moment that keeps me returning to it.  

Conclusion: Go listen to this album!!! This is everything a pop album can be: It’s fun and catchy and yet there is so much depth in the song craft that it makes you want to keep returning to find more quirks that you might’ve missed from a first or second listen!  

Favorite Tracks: "Welcome to My Island", "Pretty In Possible", Bunny Is a Rider", "Sunset", "Crude Drawing of An Angel", "I Believe", "Fly to You", "Blood and Butter", "Smoke", "Billions"