caroline - caroline 2 Review

caroline are making music in ways we’ve rarely seen - it’s spectacular when it works, but sometimes feels incomplete.

The past decade has seen a boom of orchestral rock; a trend perceivable at a distance but strikingly obvious up close. Perhaps this fascination is driven by a supposed dialectic ending to the landfill indie guitar rock that saturated the decade prior, but randomly select a critical darling of a rock-adjacent band and you’ll probably be met with a harp, or a flute, or at the very least a saxophone. caroline, the London octet, seems to fall both neatly in this box, while continuing to create their own footing in a crowded room. Following their critically acclaimed self-titled debut in 2022, the simply named caroline 2 feels like a living evolution of its members. It is at times disjointed and unorganised, but also shimmering and kaleidoscopic at others. It is far from perfect, but absolutely singular, and never derivative. 

Listening to caroline 2, it can feel like an infinite amount of albums pushed into one, even sometimes on a single track. The group recorded the album across various locations and sessions, with the central songwriting trio of Jasper Llewyn, Mike O’Malley, and Casper Hughes making pilgrimages to rural Scotland, while others joined later in the south of France, before fleshing more ideas out in Margate, Essex, and Ramsgate. This team effort means that they were able to explore a concept central to their music this time around: the idea of things that are very different from each other but also simultaneous, as described by Llewyn. Tracks like ‘Two Riders Down’ demonstrate this through texture; the former drawing bold contrast between a steady bass clarinet and erratic strings, creating a dissonance that takes a while to get used to but highly rewarding once your ears settle. On ‘Coldplay cover’, it is a bright and plucky banjo and the grounding but smooth bass clarinet, played excellently throughout the record by Alex McKenzie, that demonstrate this idea. You also have opener ‘Total Euphoria’, where the contrast comes in rhythm; with guitar strums constantly in miscalibrated but syncopated rhythm with a simple snare beat. Again, it puts you off balance at first, but the longer you listen the more hypnotic it becomes. The group, in exploring these abstract creative ideas so thoroughly, has a knack of winning you over despite the initial standoffishness their tracks produce, almost as if inviting you - in earnest - to expand your sonic palette. 

Given its scope, caroline 2 doesn’t hit on all of its intentions. The lyrics are lacking, often repeating vague platitudes that don’t add much value to each tracks overarching meaning. They span social alienation, grief, and much more, but the songwriting is sparse and flimsy, save for some powerful passages in ‘Two Riders Down’: “I’m here and I’m telling/ I can’t be with myself”, simple but emotionally potent lines to eulogise the loss of people close to McKenzie. Closer ‘Beautiful ending’ also drags slightly, with similar musical themes being revisited without much reinvention, unfortunately ending the record on a note less original than the rest of it before. Notably, although the songwriting is subpar, the vocal performances are excellent at complimenting the instrumentation, rendering it more effective as an instrument than to carry the lyrics. ‘When I get home’ and ‘Coldplay cover’ are especially deft at layering harmonies for maximum effect when the full force of the song is ongoing. The group also employ vocal processing on certain tracks that imbue the vocals with a different layer of emotion, again blurring the traditional lines of achievable emotions in vocal performance. ‘U R ONLY ACHING’ not only crescendos with incredibly stamina, but the processed vocals inject a somber energy in the back end of the track, while ‘Tell me I never knew that’ has Caroline Polacheck’s vocals melodically in step with guitar arpeggios throughout, with her vocal dexterity on display, before the vocals of the band come back in.

caroline are at the absolute forefront of rock experimentation, with their careful use of varied recording techniques and wholly collaborative approach. caroline 2 is absolutely stunning when they all come together cogently, and create some powerfully evocative and high-hitting pieces of music. When they fall short, it’s difficult not to draw it up to figuring out the kinks in their quite unique creative process.