React: Caroline Polachek - Desire, I Want To Turn Into You: Everasking Edition

Dang! It's really good.

I literally can’t stop listening to this album. The fact that we got a deluxe on the first anniversary of the album’s release date is awesome. I absolutely love this album, and did listen to the main album before listening to the deluxe tracks (I’m not an animal).

It was my number two album of 2023, so it shouldn’t shock anyone that I’m doing a near immediate reaction to the deluxe track soon after it came out. If you want to read my review of the main album, you can read them in parts one and two.

But I won’t hold you any longer, here is my reaction to Caroline Polachek’s Desire, I Want To Turn Into You: Everasking Edition.

Dang

Okay, first and foremost this was a single from a few months back so I’ve already heard it more than a handful of times. It’s a great track and it’s a signature Caroline Polachek song, I think.

And what do I mean by that? It’s a perfect blend of percussion, vocals, and a very catchy beat. It’s a great lead single that makes me excited to hear the rest of the album.

Spring Is Coming With A Strawberry In The Mouth

Starting off with an 80s style synth. Nice. It fits the new album cover extremely well. And it goes straight into a thematically correct drum beat and piano stab. Combining that with the muted guitar? That’s fantastic.

Maybe intentionally, but this track is giving me Welcome To My Island vibes. I say that because outside of the single we’ve had for a while now, this sounds like it is introducing us to the rest of the album.

In a way only Caroline could, the instrumental part after the first verse is chaotically tame. There’s a lot going on, yet it feels like everything is meant to be there. I was definitely bopping my head all the way through that part of the song.

It’s also very interesting that there’s an instrumental break after the first verse, before heading into the first chorus, which appears to be repeating the track’s title over and over. Which is fine because it once again lets Caroline show her vocal chops.

While this song has the same vibe as Welcome To My Island, it hits in a very different way for me. The instrumentation is just so fucking good.

Butterfly Net (featuring Weyes Blood)

Another track I’ve already heard before. It’s a different composition from the original track on the main part of the album. I shared some of my thoughts on Threads, but overall I love the less percussive rendition.

It’s a more soft, almost acoustic-like version of the track. It’s also very clear that Caroline rerecorded her vocals specifically for this version (or maybe using different vocal takes from the original session).

I’ve never heard of Weyes Blood before this track, but she gives this track a slightly deeper, lush vocal. Her vocals compliment Caroline’s very well.

Also, the vocal breakdown during the bridge is great. I’m very glad she kept the organ in the bridge. It was one of my favorite parts of the original track.

Meanwhile

This is a short one but it’s a good intermittent type track. It helps set the mood for those of us who listen to albums top to bottom, in order.

Coma

The first thing that stood out to me is the length of this track. It’s nearly six minutes. Was this a setup? Was Meanwhile a way of saying, "Get ready, a long song is coming."? Possibly.

Unsurprisingly, a song named Coma starts with what sounds like being in a hospital room.

Woah, that genuinely jump scared me. Right at the 25-second mark. It went from a soft and soothing melody to a very fast beat. I was not expecting any of this at all (although, am I expecting anything? Probably not).

This is my type of track. It’s messy with a ton of chaotic instrumentation. The ending of this track gives me a bit of Skrillex vibes with the vocal chops.

I think what’s most surprising about this track is that even though it’s nearing 6 minutes in length, it never feels that way. There’s enough meat here that it sounds like it’s a standard 2 to 3 minute track.

Gambler’s Prayer

I love the synth and drum pattern on this track. Oh wow, she’s doing whisper singing. The vocal is very much mono, but stereo panned into each channel. It sounds like she added a phone-esk filter to her voice as well. Her vocal has a little bit of a distorted/gritty sound to it.

I didn’t want to repeat, "I love..." again to start this paragraph, but here we are. I love that instead of a traditional hi-hat, she brought in what sounds like a few glass plates hitting each other.

A HARP?!? That’s cool. In the pre-chorus, you can hear it alternating between the left and right channels. Caroline is really flexing her upper register here as well. I’d wager most people wouldn’t be able to hit those notes.

The bass for four bars was pretty sick. She stripped everything but the drum down to its most basic form. And we’re back with a completely different bass line in the second pre-chorus.

And of course, the bridge is an amalgamation of the bass and the more complex parts of the drum beat. Mixed in is some of the ambiance you may have missed during the first half of the track.

The introduction of the congo/tom drums at the end of the track is perfect.

I think this is my favorite track from the deluxe portion of the album. It’s just so interesting. It had me vibing all the way through. What an absolute banger of a track. I can already hear myself playing this track over and over in the weeks and months to come.

I Believe (Acoustic Version)

Very familiar if you’ve heard her perform at NPR’s Tiny Desk (which, if you haven’t, you definitely should. It’s really good). It’s praclly the same version, just produced. Her vocal is more perfected, with reverb added.

I’d say the main difference between this version and the one she performed at NPR is the massive soundscape. It’s a track I can close my eyes and imagine being right in the middle of it. The sound staging on this track is wild. It’s super wide.

You also, of course, get the bonuses of an edited track. Adding in the various digital backing instrumentation.

Conclusion

Very solid deluxe tracks. I’m glad they were deluxe tracks and weren’t part of the main album. The deluxe tracks have a very different vibe to the main album but are great in their own way.

(Post reaction edit: I had no idea that Spring Is Coming With A Strawberry In The Mouth and Coma are both covers of already existing songs. I’ll have to check out the original tracks now! But I think Caroline did a really good job at covering these two tracks.

Also, it looks like she added Long Road Home to the tracklist almost a full week after the initial deluxe release. This track was previously released as a single, and I’ve heard it before. So, I’ve omitted it from this reaction.)

The vibe is different from the main album. It wouldn’t have fit as part of the main album. If the deluxe tracks are a sneak peek into what’s next, I am very excited for the next era of Caroline Polachek to say the least.

---

Note: This reaction was listened to in its entirety with Tidal with a Hi-Fi Plus subscription via Roon (mix of 24-bit, 44.1 kHz and 24-bit, 48 kHz).