Caroline Polachek shared “The Gate [Extended Mix]” to mark the one-year anniversary of her debut solo album “Pang”. Released via Perpetual Novice, the new 10-minute version was mixed by Polachek and features contributions from Oneohtrix Point Never and Danny L Harle.
According to a press release, Polachek mixed the new track, which has “textural contributions” from Oneohtrix Point Never and Danny L Harle. “The Gate (Extended Mix)” also arrives with a music video by Ezra Miller.“In the original version of the song, the closing lyric (‘Finally, there’s a way/To be both free and safe’) are the words I’m waiting to hear, but never do,” Caroline Polachek said in a press release. “The extended version of the song then is a sort of parallel universe or alternate ending, where those words not only arrive, but ring true.”
Caroline Polachek has occupied many spaces during her decade as a musician. From fronting an indie band making sync-friendly earworms and contributing to Beyoncé albums to stints making experimental music under other aliases, she’s proved as malleable as she has been consistent, so the high quality of her debut solo LP “Pang” is unsurprising. Created alongside producer Danny L Harle, the album leans into the PC Music aesthetic, a sideways take on sugary pop melodies and electronic production. Unlike other artists on that roster, however, Polachek isn’t afraid to fully commit to her feelings; written after a painful break-up, Pang covers indecision (“Door”), lust (“So Hot You’re Hurting My Feelings”), and self-doubt (“Caroline Shut Up”) in heart-swelling fashion.
Great albums often act as a key to how an artist moves forward, and Pang is proof that you’d back Polachek to go anywhere.
Caroline Polachek (formerly of the band Chairlift) is releasing a new solo album, “Pang”, on October 18th via Columbia Records . This week she shared another song from the album, “So Hot You’re Hurting My Feelings.”
Previously Polachek shared three songs from Pang. “Ocean of Tears” and “Parachute” were shared when the album was announced, with “Ocean of Tears” making our Songs of the Week list in many blogging lists. Then she shared a video for “Ocean of Tears.” The album also includes the previously shared single “Door.”
For Pang Polachek has collaborated with producer/composer Danny L Harle. “Parachute” was the first song written for the album, with lyrics inspired by a dream Polachek had “in which she accepts her own death only to find herself saved,” as a press release puts it.
“It was an incredible moment, realizing that this melody we’d written was unintentionally re-telling a dream I’d been shaken by,” says Polachek in the press release. “I went home, re-drafted the words to fit, and came back to the studio at 1am to record the vocal the same day. And that’s the take we kept. From that moment on, Dan and I knew we had a lot more work to do together.”
Polachek adds: “‘Parachute’ is about the total trust that only comes with total emergency. Like a mayfly trying its wings for the first time over a large body of water full of hungry fish… and the wings work.”
“Ocean of Tears” was the last song written for the album. The song was written by Caroline Polachek, NateCampany, and Kyle Shearer and produced by Caroline Polachek, Danny L Harle, and Valley Girl, with additional production by A. G. Cook.
In the press release Polachek says, “‘Ocean of Tears’ is dedicated to the sharp pain of being in love with someone far away, and the maddening doubt that comes with it.”
She adds: “I’d really like someone to figure skate to this at the 2022 Winter Olympics.”
Pang will be Polachek’s first album released under her own name, although she did release, Arcadia, a solo album as Ramona Lisa, in 2014, as well as an instrumental Ramona Lisa album, Drawing the Target Around the Arrow in 2017. Chairlift announced in 2016 that they were splitting up and they played some final shows in 2017.
Charlift a band I liked since their debut but never thought would become a band I love too much have proven themselves to be an incredibly strong musical duo. Their last record, Something, pushed them into new, focused territory, marrying their electronic pop influences with their own specific brand of weird and clever songcraft. Caroline Polachek’s voice remains one of indie music’s most versatile, emotive, and strange instruments, guiding each of Moth’s beguiling pop numbers like a beaming ray of light. She zips through “Romeo” and “Moth to the Flame,” grooves through “Polymorphing” and “Show U Off,” and glistens sadly through “Crying in Public.” Her swagger is infectious on should-be hit single “Ch-Ching,” and she knows when to dial it back, as on the plaintive closer “No Such Thing as Illusion.” The band may not be the most unique stylistically, but they have enough of their own individual flavor to push them into their own small, vital world of music, and it’s such a wonderful world to visit.
![10. Chairlift - Moth [Columbia]](https://thefatangelsings.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/2008a-1480692024262.jpg)
The Fat Angel Sings 