Yes, we know, you’re nowhere near finished with Christmas shopping and have been blaring “All I Want for Christmas Is You†for weeks. But princess of art-pop Caroline Polachek is ready to move on to Valentine’s Day, when she’s set to release her long-in-the-making new solo album, Desire, I Want to Turn Into You. She’s giving us an early peek at her valentine with “Welcome to My Island,†the new single that gives the album its name. The song toes the line between Polachek’s knack for hooky pop earworms and her inclination toward grand, operatic performance — and hey, is that an interpolation of “Don’t You (Forget About Me)†in the middle of it all? The former Chairlift musician has long written lovestruck, often cheeky songs for the digital age, from “So Hot You’re Hurting My Feelings†to “Billions.†Now, on “Island,†she makes listeners feel those pangs, opening with 25 seconds of wailing and delivering the chorus — that album-title line — at the top of her lungs. “Valentine’s day will be hitting different in 2023,†a press release teases.
News of Desire follows Polachek’s 2021 single “Bunny Is a Rider†and earlier 2022 offerings “Billions†and “Sunset.†At the beginning of fall, Polachek postponed her European tour, saying she needed the time to finish her album. But “Island†has been in the works even longer — since Polachek’s previous album, Pang, released in 2019. (She produced “Island†with longtime collaborators Dan Nigro, Danny L. Harle, A.G. Cook, and Jim-E Stack.) She told Rolling Stone the song felt more “brash and bratty and funny and chaotic and manic†than Pang, thus becoming a seed for Desire. Polachek continued work on Desire over the past few years, first in England with Harle during the COVID-19 pandemic and, later, on tour opening for Dua Lipa this year. After all that teasing, desire is right — but we want it now.