album review: 'pang' by caroline polachek (7th year anniversary)

It’s weird how six months of doing something completely different makes returning to the familiar feel oddly new.

Because while I’ve been pushing out single reviews pretty regularly since I started On The Pulse when I have way too much to say - which is all the damn time - going back to a single release for an anniversary review feels a bit different. And considering how much of a nail-biter the final votes came down for this, I would have wound up in uncharted territory regardless. It rapidly split between three albums: 1000 gecs by 100 gecs, the self-titled Injury Reserve album, and then this album, which eked out the win by a single vote - and it wasn’t a tiebreaker, before you ask.

And even then, I felt like I was kind of in uncharted territory, because whlie Chairlift had been on my radar as a synthpop band, they never really attracted much attention, falling into a well-reviewed and likable indie pop cluster that I’ll admit I only tend to brush against if I’m not grabbed by a great song. So when the band broke up and their frontwoman went solo, I wasn’t really galvanized to care much. Yeah, the critics went bananas for her solo debut, but 2019 was such a wonky year when it came to finding any critical consensus that it was probably just a fluke… and when I checked her production credits and saw Danny L Harle and A.G. Cook, known affiliates of PC Music, it made more sense but also kept me at a distance. I’ve said this a number of times before, but the production tones coming out of that camp can be incredibly haphazard and hit-and-miss; if I’m not always onboard with Charli XCX, what would make this different? But fine, what did I find on Caroline Polachek’s first album under her own name proper, Pang?

So here’s the thing: I completely understand why this album got requested, because in theory there’s a lot in my natural wheelhouse here. The PC Music production flourishes are here, but not obtrusive or poorly integrated, and Caroline Polachek has a knack for making odd compositional flourishes sound accessible in a naturalistic structure, while remaining a really damn potent singer who can bend and contort her voice around the mix. And that’s before we get to the content and the album’s very real arc and all the comparisons I’m going to make to similar acts I love that made this an easier sell that I was expecting… which is why it kind of frustrates me I’m kind of lukewarm on it. Not that it’s bad at all, but it’s an album that slips into the background for me distressingly quickly, and I’d like to pin down why.

And to do that, there are two artists that if we’re discussing Caroline Polachek spring to my mind immediately, especially when it comes to layered, electronic composition with an uncanny organic side and just as oblique vocal delivery: Imogen Heap and Anna Meredith. No, it’s not a particularly fair comparison because Imogen Heap has a classic album and I still hold 2014’s Sparks to be one of the most underrated albums of the 2010s, and what Anna Meredith is doing in electronic composition is spellbinding, but there are a lot of parallels in how Polachek will bend her classically-trained vocal delivery around the melody with slight electronic augmentation, or just throw compositional curve balls like how the key on each verse of ‘New Normal’ changes, or the 7/4 time signature on ‘Look At Me Now’. More to the point, they’re choices that fit the underlying motifs and ideas of the song: ‘New Normal’ is all about a slippery cascade of life events where whenever some stability is found there’s a lurch to move in a different direction; hell, the most straightforward post-breakup dance song ‘So Hot You’re Hurting My Feelings’ is all about hitting that wave of regretful nostalgia, so of course it sounds like flagrant 80s pop rock! And thematically there’s another parallel to Anna Meredith’s last album FIBS, which was all about building up the courage to embrace and take more risks, move past the little lies we tell ourselves, and the entire thematic arc of this album is its calculated risk.

In fact, let’s stay here, because it’s hard not to read at least some of the references on this project to the dissolution of Chairlift and Polachek’s semi-recent divorce in 2018, where she describes feelings of being caught in forces beyond her control, which can be deeply thrilling… but also doesn’t allow an escape in the same way, which is why the apathetic breakdown on ‘I Give Up’ and the hard reconciliation with her past, including where she was the one who exited, likely more through passive or subconscious neglect than outright choice, that’s why it stings so deeply. Now the back half of the album feels more traditional, post-breakup, as she explores her own trauma juxtaposed with overwhelming empathy, where there’s a hard realization that even if there was deception in the relationship, she kind of misses the wonder of the trick. But now it’s all about taking her own agency, finding some form of real comfort being alone, and stepping out into the voice to charge through those doors herself, and that’s why the subtle reassurance of ‘Parachute’ is a great closer - even if she’s taking that risk and she doesn’t quite know who the new songs will be about, there’s some real support there. And this is where I think Caroline Polachek comes into her own as an artist: not just in how she will throw herself into emotionality without it feeling melodramatic, but also in how she creates a sense of adventure with some wry charm. In terms of mood and intensity, I’m actually reminded a bit of Kate Bush, especially in how thrilling and emotionally nuanced some of this drama can be.

But man, I wish the production could get all the way there. Now in comparison with a lot of PC Music productions, we don’t have the overhanging issues of mastering and blown-out abrasion that can be so exasperating with that crew: the tones are rounder, the keys are more balanced, and while passages like the autotune bending around ‘Hit Me Where It Hurts’ did grate on my nerves a bit, they are the minority here. But that highlights a peculiar, often overlooked hiccup in PC Music production: the mixes might be huge with shuddering bass drops, glassy keys, sharp percussion, and warping layers around any sort of organic instrumentation, but if there isn’t a melodic centerpiece, the mix can feel empty very fast. And while that was intentional on a few cuts here like ‘I Give Up’ and the heartbreaking ‘Insomnia’ - hell, in order to amplify the loneliness you can argue it was intentional across the board - you can tell that certain songs are relying really heavily on Polachek’s voice to carry them rather than support her to amplify the drama. That’s one reason I really like ‘So Hot You’re Hurting My Feelings’ even despite being 80s pop rock fluff - it’s got that additional melodic foundation with the guitar, as does ‘New Normal’ and ‘Look At Me Now’, even if it can feel kind of weedy in the latter. It’s also where the parallel with Imogen Heap comes back into view, because she does the same fairly often, but there’s also more subtle melodic electronics in her work that Polachek doesn’t have beyond PC Music electronics that might be textured, but not particularly tuneful. And especially on the back half of this album where the songs start running a bit longer, I find myself wishing the instrumentation was less fragmented, especially when there isn’t much in the way of groove, and parts start to run together a bit. Although I will say this, apparently after a bunch of songs got swapped onto the project at the last minute, it doesn’t really break cohesion.

So as a whole, I’m reminded a bit of when y’all wanted me to discuss Pop 2 by Charli XCX in a review and where I wind up a little less over-the-moon than everyone else, but I still recommend Pang. What I suspect is that Polachek will use this as a springboard to more sounds and styles in her solo output - it’s transitional in both sound and content, and I absolutely believe her best is yet to come. So while I’m going to give this a 7/10, I am going to pay attention for what she releases next, because this reflected a ton of character and craft with one hell of a frontwoman, and I’d like to hear more. If you haven’t gotten around to this, make the time to check it out.