London avant-folk octet caroline have announced the release of second album caroline 2, set for 30 May via Rough Trade. And to get us hyped about it, they’ve shared lead single “Tell me I never knew that”, which features an unexpected – but undeniably brilliant – vocal take from none other than namesake Caroline Polachek.
The band give insight into the backstory of how it came together, saying:
“We used to call this one ‘Backstreet boys’ because the opening top line felt like a Backstreet Boys song. The main riff was written by Casper on acoustic guitar and stuck out as a really catchy, bouncy, hypnotic thing. We wrote the opening top line together and straight away we thought ‘this sounds like a melody that Caroline Polachek might sing’ in its hooky-ness. We sort of joked that we’d ask her to sing it but didn’t think it’d actually be on the cards, until about a year later when we sent her the half-finished song and she was up for it!
“Caroline was amazing. She wrote a load of extra parts that gave the whole thing such a lift, and then spent a few hours tracking a load of more improvised parts. We were still recording at about 1.30am when we decided to call it, but there was no indication that Caroline was the slightest bit tired or that she had lost any momentum in her ability to sing, even though she’d been singing for about 6 hours. It was an inspiring thing to witness! We did a little bit more re-ordering together with Caroline a few weeks after the session and then the song was finally there.”
Polachek slots into caroline’s glowing folk menagerie perfectly, her voice filled with yearning as she contemplates identity and simply harmonises and accentuates the ripe emotion on show. With the band’s already powerful array of vocalists all around, she weaves her way in perfectly. “Tell me I never knew that” just builds and builds around this cornucopia of feeling, the instrumentation clattering and soaring its way towards a glorious sunset.
Watch the video for “Tell me I never knew that”, self shot by caroline and Polachek, below, or find the song on streamers.
caroline’s new album caroline 2 is out on 30 May via Rough Trade (pre-order/save). You can follow caroline on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
Forthcoming Live Shows
Thu, 30th May – London, Rough Trade East
Sat, 31st May– Bristol, Trinity
Sun, 1st June – Falmouth, KCM Church
Tue, 3rd June – London, Islington Assembly Hall
Wed, 4th June – Cardiff, The Gate
Fri, 6th June – Manchester, Band On The Wall
Sat, 7th June – Glasgow, St Lukes
Sun, 8th June – Leeds, Brudenell Social Club
Wed, 3rd Sept – Tokyo, Japan, WWWX
Tue, 9th Sept – Amsterdam, Netherlands – Tolhuistuin
Thu, 11th Sept – Aarhus, Denmark – Alter Festival
Fri, 12th Sept – Copenhagen, Denmark– Loppen
Sun, 14th Sept – Brussels, Belgium – Ancienne Belgique
Mon, 15th Sept – Paris, France – Petit Bain
Tue, 16th Sept – Lille, France – L’Aéronef
