And then you have the thing that happens when after touring it for six months, you go back and hear the album version.
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And often, it's only on the comp that that version comes together.īut then, of course, then you have the huge challenge of then learning how to sing it live. I can kind of feel what the version in my head is trying to do. I almost have a very visceral response, like, in my body as I'm comping. And for me, the comp is, like, a big, big part of singing.
And, you know, I'm the only person who ever edits my vocal - it's called comping, where you kind of take the bits you like from different takes and put them together into this patchwork of what becomes the final take. POLACHEK: The production always, always, always obeys the melody. And I wonder how you feel like your singing has grown throughout your career, how you've kind of worked on it and, also, how you were thinking about the production on your voice on this album, because it really feels like it is an orchestra in and of itself. PARKS: Your voice does so much on this album. POLACHEK: (Singing) There you were with your mirror, shining the world all over me. PARKS: Let's listen to a little bit of "Butterfly Net." I guess I just make the stuff that excites me and that I want to hear. Whereas pop music - all these definitions just feel completely ridiculous to me. But, you know, for me, quite frankly, I think a lot of music that calls itself experimental is very traditional, is using ideas that have been around since the 1950s, 1960s, even the same techniques. And, you know, you use the words experimental and pop as if they're at odds. POLACHEK: You know, I'm such a student of classic pop songwriting, and I, of course, still feel like there's more for me to learn. And the more you listen to it, it, like, has catchiness like a pop song, but it doesn't really have a traditional refrain, right? I mean, was that intentional, or did you go into thinking about this album that you wanted to play with kind of traditional song structure more? PARKS: So I kept playing this song on repeat. But you see it in my eyes, and that is bae. But down in the deep end, I can't be left alone. POLACHEK: (Singing) Time's running out, innit? Pity the mayflies in the swimming pool at dawn.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "PRETTY IN POSSIBLE") And I want to play a little bit of a song called "Pretty In Possible." PARKS: The way you kind of walk this line between pop music and experimental music feels so unique on this album. I kind of almost cosplay a bit a version of myself in which I'm much harder to reach than I actually am. POLACHEK: (Laughter) I guess the idea of Bunny in this song is just - it's about being on findable, elusive, playing by your own rules, not picking up the phone. PARKS: I mean, so this song kind of centers on this central character, this Bunny character. I want to turn to the first single off the album "Bunny Is A Rider," which Pitchfork named the best song of 2021 when it was first released. Feels very, like, getting back to, like, our basic human instincts. POLACHEK: You're like, don't mention Tarzan, don't mention Tarzan. PARKS: Well, you mentioned Tarzan, which I feel like - when I was, like, writing notes for what I was going to talk to you about, I. All the sort of different meanings that you could take out of that line kind of hold the entire album within it. Wasn't until a year and a half later that I really started thinking about what those lyrics meant and how there's a sort of paradox built into that phrase. But the chorus lyric, desire, I want to turn into you, came completely intuitively without me thinking about it. A lot of the comedy in this song comes from the kind of code-switching within it.
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POLACHEK: Obviously, there's a total comedy in it - like, to open the album with this, like, full Tarzan mode and then immediately snap into this quite '80s phone-operator voice. I'm wondering if you can just tell me about that lyric and what it says about the record as a whole. And then it has this line right after - desire, I want to turn into you - which is the title of the album as well. That top section - I keep humming it to myself. PARKS: I want to start with that opening song. Welcome to my island, NPR's WEEKEND EDITION. Thank you so much for having me on today.
And the artist behind it, Caroline Polachek, joins us now. PARKS: It's a fantastic pop album that doubles as an experimental look at some of our most basic human instincts - desire, faith, lust.
POLACHEK: (Singing) Welcome to my island. (SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "WELCOME TO MY ISLAND") Caroline Polachek's new album, "Desire, I Want To Turn Into You" starts with a howl.
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