CAROLINE (UK) - caroline 2

Disharmony and dissonance, two guitars moving to two distinct rhythms, two possible developments for a single song unfolding simultaneously until they collide in a dimensional tear that swallows up the intricate sonic construction. A luminescent epiphany, a choir orbiting around a void, flashes of the celestial. This is how "caroline 2" opens, the second album by the English post-rock band, who not only continue to experiment on the ruins of the traditional song form, but also bring unprecedented approaches to the recording process. Filters and effects applied to the vocalists' voices, but also fragments recorded en plein air (take, for instance, the central section of "U R UR ONLY ACHING", recorded in one of London's historic cemeteries) or the submerged, self-sustaining pulse of a dance track lurking in the background of "When I Get Home".

The most daring experiment, however, is the one carried out on "Coldplay Cover": two rooms where two bands play two distinct songs, with a mobile recorder also capturing the creak of footsteps on the wooden floor as someone shuttles between the two rooms. The result is strikingly fluid and organic, and the melodies weave together into a deeply evocative harmonic web. And it's perhaps precisely the imaginative potential of these eight tracks that makes "caroline 2" such an incredibly immersive and rewarding record for anyone who dives into it.

Thanks to meticulously crafted sound design and indeterminate lyrical fragments, caroline have crafted a small masterpiece of composition, with an overwhelming emotional impact. All this, however, without forgetting the magnetic immediacy offered by popular music, traditionally more accessible than avant-garde forms, which on the gorgeous collaboration with Caroline Polachek, "Tell Me I Never Knew That", is deconstructed and reassembled into a cyborg hybrid of pop, avant-folk and post-rock. No borders, no barriers.

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13/07/2025