Tell Me I Never Knew That (feat Caroline Polachek) (4:39)
When I Get Home (5:55)
U R Our Only Aching (4:32)
Coldplay Cover (4:16)
Two Riders Down (6:40)
Beautiful Ending (5:16)
Review: One of many recent megabands to arise out of London over the past decade, Caroline return with Caroline 2, an assertive followup to their eponymous debut. A scribblier, pocketbook style is heard; where their first album toyed with minimalism and restraint, Caroline 2 leans into extremes, surging across hushed textures, acoustic detail and synthetic blur, perhaps best recalling the recent hyperdigital indie collages of Bon Iver. With a topical and tasteful feature from post-gloss pop singer Caroline Polachek on 'Tell Me I Never Knew That', the record is led up by a eerily ear-sieging hyperpop ballad, doing justice to the shared name, as if to revel in nominative fate: "it always happens, it always will be..."
Review: Sarah Mary Chadwick's ninth album drifts in on the smoke and hush of a late-night confessional. Half jukebox heartbreak, half art-song seance, we find a multi-talented but downcast musician tiptoeing the edge of a major life shift, as Chadwick sings of the moments before a commitment to sobriety. Hers is the kind of detoxified clarity that only hindsight allows; tremulous voices sing with candid exposure on 'I'm Not Clinging To Life' through subjects of age and lost time, backlaid by piano pitched so high we can feel vicariously the artist's vertigo. The New Zealand-born Melbourner recorded the album with Chris Townend, who reamped the full mix through a piano held open by a sandbag to create its strange, aspirant reverb effect heard throughout. The result is a record attenuated by granular bulks of memory and detachment; devastation, reframed with restraint.
Review: Civic frontman Jim McCullogh apparently likes the idea of his band being more of a "mind set" than a group per se. Each record adds another layer to that perspective, like the evolution of a character rather than the trajectory of a troubadour troupe. In this case "one of the main objectives for this album was to make a drastic turn in our sound. Break the mould, melt the steel." Of course, there's still that heavily post-punk influenced Civic sound coursing through the rhythms here, and it's as gritty as ever. But it's also full of curveballs and unexpected twists, at times punting for a more jangle-y atmosphere, in other moments something resolutely muscular and main stage. Either way, it's going to hit you in the face and refuse to apologise.
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