caroline – caroline 2
On their second album, London collective caroline deliver a dazzlingly inventive, meticulously-crafted masterclass in experimentation
If you’ve been wondering where all of the original ideas have gone in modern rock, it might be that caroline have been hoarding them. On this searingly inventive miracle of a second record from the London eight-piece, everything feels new, even identifying individual influences is a relatively straightforward process. caroline 2 is by no means the first album to be in thrall to Mark Hollis and Talk Talk, but it is surely the first time that said influence has been inflected with nods to the likes of Broken Social Scene, Sigur Rós and the entire pantheon of midwest emo bands, to pluck just three points of reference from a sprawling list.
There is both minimalism – as on the shimmering, delicate When I get home – and maximalism, as on Two riders down, which conjures bleak beauty from a maelstrom of discordant strings drenched in reverb. And there are track titles both figurative (Coldplay cover is in fact an impressionistic take on folk-pop) and literal, with Beautiful ending closing the record by imbuing chamber pop with uncanny, vocodered vocals.
On caroline 2, caroline have done more than just cut eight glittering art rock diamonds here; they've forged a genuinely new musical lane, one entirely their own.
Listen to: Tell me I never knew that (ft. Caroline Polachek), When I get home, Two riders down