caroline’s subtly powerful ‘Tell me I never knew that’ comes as the second single from the London eight-piece’s hotly anticipated second album caroline 2. The band collaborates with American singer Caroline Polachek to present this touchingly sentimental ballad.
The song features familiarly serene layers of acoustic instrumentation, with guitar and vocal harmonies building towards a swell of strings, woodwind and brass in the chorus. Lyrically, the song reflects a questioning of identity, opening with the phrase “I don’t even know if I’m alive / But I don’t wanna be somebody else.”
Caroline Polachek’s contribution makes this track particularly unique. Departing from her own often heavily produced material, her vocalisations blend seamlessly with the instrumental swell. Her voice, often towing the line between human and artificial, is at once at peace with and standing against the acoustic sound of the song, mirroring the themes of dislocation and identity reflected in the lyrics.
The song dies away at the end, with the repeated refrain ‘It always has been / It always will be / It always happens’, creating a sense of anticipation that is both uneasy and nostalgic. The song is paired with a montage of videos collected from the band, presenting a beautifully reflective work that offers great promise for the direction of their upcoming album.
“Caroline Polachek at The Warfield 2023” by Papipacify is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.