caroline - 'Tell me I never knew that’
London’s prolific experimental eight-piece caroline release first track of their upcoming second full-length album caroline 2.
This is their first release since their debut album caroline in February 2022, a record which took close to five years to complete and,upon release, sprung the group into the forefront of the global art rock scene.
The following year the group wrapped up some worthy praise from critics and fans alike, Pitchfork describing their work as “timeless” whilst NME called it “hypnotising” and “bursting with ideas”.
Along with a few lengthy tours around the world including some of the most renowned music festivals, an iconic set for the Tiny Desk Concerts platform acted as a cherry on the icing of what was already a phenomenal breakout year for caroline.
caroline 2’s story begins towards the end of 2023, when the band began their first writing sessions, which would continue to take place for the next 18 months whilst simultaneously beginning to record at Big Jelly Studios in Ramsgate.
The first release from this promising record “Tell me I never knew that” features a collaboration with a similarly talented and recently flourishing artist Caroline Polachek, whose vocal work shines through the familiarly serene instrumental compositions.
The group first thought of asking the hyper pop artist to feature when one of the band members pointed out that the song’s melody is akin to something you would expect from Polachek: “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”, they added, “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”.
The lush acoustic piece which kicks the song off is followed by a rush of energy which the drums usher in halfway through, with some incredible high-pitched melodies from Polachek backed by the repeating lines of tender lyricism and the soft layers of violin and trumpet, making for an impressive sentimental piece of art which delivers great promise for this upcoming record.
“Tell me I never knew that” is out now on all platforms, including an accompanying music video which puts together some of the group’s favorite moments captured within the past two years.
caroline 2 will be out via Rough Trade Records on the 30th of May, so do keep your eyes out for what is sure to be another exciting piece of work from caroline.
Words by Jay Cohen
