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Caroline Polachek

Caroline Polachek

Since 2013 · United States

Caroline Polachek first became known as the singer of Chairlift, an indie synth-pop duo she led through the 2000s and 2010s, and as a credited co-writer on Beyoncé's "No Angel," a writing credit that surprised listeners who only knew her from Chairlift's smaller-scale indie records. Their story

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Who they shaped

Behind them, left to right: Fiona Apple, Björk, Kate Bush.

In front, left to right: Kero Kero Bonito.

The bigger the face, the stronger the proof: they said it themselvesreporteda critic, or widely accepted

Desire, I Want to Turn Into You cover

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Desire, I Want to Turn Into You (2023)

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Desire, I Want to Turn Into You is Caroline Polachek's most maximalist record, layering flamenco guitar, bagpipes, hyperpop-adjacent production, and her own multi-tracked voice into arrangements that shift shape constantly without losing melodic clarity. "Welcome to My Island" opens the album with a scream that immediately signals bigger, stranger ambitions relative to her earlier work. "Fly to You," a duet with Grimes and Dido, shows the record's unusual instinct for cross-generational, cross-genre collaboration. Across the album, Polachek's voice — technically extraordinary, always in service of the song rather than pure display — holds together a record that could easily have collapsed under its own scope.

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Caroline Polachek

Desire, I Want to Turn Into You · 2023

Caroline Polachek first became known as the singer of Chairlift, an indie synth-pop duo she led through the 2000s and 2010s, and as a credited co-writer on Beyoncé's "No Angel," a writing credit that surprised listeners who only knew her from Chairlift's smaller-scale indie records. After that band ended, she released solo material under a couple of different aliases before settling on her own name.

Pang (2019), her first album released under her own name and home to "So Hot You're Hurting My Feelings," paired her wide, technically striking vocal range with production touches drawn partly from PC Music-adjacent collaborators, art-pop songwriting filtered through a genuinely maximalist, hyperpop-aware production sensibility. Desire, I Want to Turn Into You (2023) extended that approach further, pulling in a wider range of instrumentation and collaborators while keeping her voice as the clear structural center of every song. Polachek has cited Cocteau Twins as a significant touchstone for her own vocal and atmospheric ambitions, a lineage that runs underneath even her most maximalist, contemporary-sounding production choices.

Since 2013 · United States