Caroline Polachek – Pang ☆

“Into me…PANG! and I go into you… PANG! and you go into me…” Polachek sings on the title track of her marvelous solo debut album. Released in 2019, Caroline Polachek coupled whimsical lyrics, stunning production (with the help of PC Music’s Danny L Harle), ethereal visuals (Timothy Luke), and her hypnotizing voice to create an album that almost feels like a storybook to me. She guides the listeners into her world with the intro, “Gate,” and opens it up into the title track to provide an “album for romantics” as she states. Each track is full of visual language and is able to create a form of escapism. In “New Normal” she sings about what seems to be random, unrelated things such as fog machines, blizzards in April, cats, and a robin with a broken wing. However, she revealed this song is a history of her friendship with Pang co-executive-producer Danny L Harle. For me, the standouts are “Hit Me Where It Hurts” and “So Hot You’re Hurting My Feelings.” The latter has this scenario that everyone can relate to: an unreciprocated love/crush that hurts you the more you interact with them. In “Hit Me Where It Hurts,” Polachek describes that she feels “like a butterfly trapped inside a plane,” which I think is a beautiful simile. She acknowledges she is able to fly at her own will but is still confined within this larger space, unable to freely fly away. In this song she knows this love will hurt, that her lover will even hate her one day, yet she still wants this love. Pairing every song with visuals and a “lyric booklet,” Polachek and her team were able to create this stunning world with themes of love and self-perception.

☆ Rating: 9/10 ☆