Pang

Throughout her tenure as the lead singer and keyboardist of the experimental indie rock outfit Chairlift, Caroline Polachek offered her atmospheric take on synthy, arty pop. Its a sound she expanded upon with her solo projects, including 2014s Baroque Arcadia (released as Ramona Lisa) and 2017s ambient-leaning Drawing the Target Around the Arrow (issued as CEP). With 2019s Pang, her first album released under her own name, Polachek further distills her approach with a collection of deeply emotive songs that showcase her delicate vocals and intricate pop sensibilities. Helping her achieve this deft balance of art and emotion is British producer Danny L. Harle. Together, they craft arrangements that straddle the line between moody electronica and adult contemporary pop. Cuts like the soulfully fractured I Give Up, the yearning acoustic ballad Look at Me Now, and the icy, hip-hop-tinged Ocean of Tears bring to mind the languid sophistication of icons like Kate Bush, Imogen Heap, and Annie Lennox, while remaining true to Polacheks own distinctive artistic voice. On Pang, one gets the sense that Polachek has come through a dark period of personal and creative transformation and is writing directly from that experience. She details the end of a relationship on Look at Me Now, singing Now my friends all tell me, Girl, youre getting skinny. Have you not been sleeping?/How could I be? She further encapsulates these feelings of change on Hit Me Where It Hurts, singing Im feeling like a butterfly trapped in a plane/Maybe theres something going on/Im not insane. Theres also a vivid conceptuality to Polacheks work here. The opening The Gate is a shimmering flagship song that evokes a mythic sense of rebirth, as if Polachek is about to embark on a journey of discovery. Its that personal artistic voice cracking through the beautiful scrim of her conceptual artifice that makes Pang so compelling. ~ Matt Collar