caroline
caroline 2
Tough Commerce
Jun 06, 2025
Net Unique
Caroline’s self-titled debut was an acoustic, spacious slowcore folks report that at occasions caught a tailwind whereas sustaining a rural serenity with its strings of olde. Its sequel holds tracks with the identical refined grandeur, imbued with the joy of fringe experimentation in recording methods and a sound charged with a fiery electrical energy. It’s virtually as if Bob Dylan went electrical within the twenty first century after discovering auto tune with the dial turned to 11.
The intro “Whole euphoria” showcases who caroline was, is, and shall be when at their greatest. Syncopated guitars run alongside one another, gaining velocity however held in line by dragging, blasting drums and steadily guided by the group’s vocals. The track builds and builds into one rising, crackling violin notice that drops right into a distorted explosion of electrified catharsis. When first listening to this monitor it generated chills. After which the time after that, and the one after that…It really lives as much as its identify.
However after the emotional rollercoaster of “Whole euphoria,” shedding that top and receiving crescendos and partitions of sound which are much less grand in composition typically leaves the listener concurrently needing a break and wanting extra. Whereas “Stunning ending” is an ending, and fairly a gorgeous one at that, it’s a gradual diffusion quite than an explosive bang. Having “Whole euphoria” on the album’s helm creates an expectation of vitality that’s by no means actually absolutely met, and frames the remainder of the album as lower than it truly is.
Nothing on caroline 2 is with out its bumps and scratches. The violin is violent and gritty, the drums off-kilter and explosive. Devices typically get into an enthusiastic yelling match, resembling on “Two riders down,” the place the amassing of little instrumental quarrels type a suffocating blanket of noise. The coarse scratching of bow-crushing-string as “Tune two” enters its climax highlights the refined textural touches that put caroline a lower above the remaining.
Versus the intimately distant sound uniformly captured within the recordings of their debut, each track sounds such as you’re listening to it dwell and up-close and private in several settings. On “After I get dwelling” a techno kick mutedly kilos by way of membership partitions as you stroll in on caroline quietly performing within the lavatory. Alternatively, “U R UR ONLY ACHING” alternates between a booming rock monitor and an intimate acoustic recording, at one level sharply isolating to only a voice memo of guitar and vocals. A very enjoyable use of the mode of recording occurs on “Coldplay cowl,” the place the band splits into two rooms and a Zoom mic strikes in between the completely different elements of the home. The groans of footsteps on picket flooring transition between sections of the track as the primary half fades to a quiet background to let the second shine.
The double caroline collab, “Inform me I by no means knew that” with Caroline Polachek, is nearly an entire anomaly within the album’s equation. Polachek’s inhuman harmonies floating atop the track’s crystalline melody virtually make you overlook her lyrical existentialism: “I don’t even know if I’m alive / However I don’t wanna be any person else,” Polachek sings over joyful guitar. “Perhaps I don’t wanna be anybody / And I don’t wanna be any person else.”
At their greatest, caroline create compositions that blow your socks off, leaving you staring into area as your mind routes all of its vitality into attempting to grasp the attractive frankenstein they’ve created. Main with their greatest track made it arduous to maintain that momentum going, and the album’s makes an attempt to get again on its toes typically see it hold tempo however not escape into its unique dash. (www.caroline.band)
Creator score: 7.5/10
Price this album
Common reader score: 4/10