FEATURE:
My Favourite Singles of 2022 (So Far)
Four: Caroline Polachek - Billions
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IT has been such a strong year…
PHOTO CREDIT: Terrence O'Connor
for singles. That is the same with albums, but I have been amazed by the variety of singles that have come out. I am doing a run where I nominate my favourite of the year so far. I am highlighting the top five; then I will put numbers six through ten in the final feature. A single that I reviewed back in February is Caroline Polachek’s Billions. I am not sure when there is going to be a follow-up to the tremendous 2019 album, Pang. During 2021, Polachek did collaborate and tour with other artists (and she has recently performed alongside Charli XCX). On 14th July, 2021, she released Bunny Is a Rider. Polachek did reveal the song was part of a future project. In On 9th February, she released Billions. My fifth-favourite single of this year so far involves a Rap titan who is among the finest artists in the world. Now, I want to spend some time with the sensational Billions. I will come to a review (not mine) of the mighty and majestic Billions. A brilliant single from the New York-born artist, this is how Rolling Stone wrote about the release of a wonderful revelation:
“CAROLINE POLACHEK HAS shared her new single, “Billions” — a trip-hop inspired, hallucinogenic epic that finds the songwriter expanding upon the inventive production style perfected on her critically acclaimed 2019 album, Pang.
The song, a staple from the “So Hot You’re Hurting My Feelings” singer’s 2021 live shows, was written and produced by Polachek alongside Danny L. Harle and features a children’s chorus performed by London’s renowned Trinity Choir. Its release was accompanied by a surrealist video which finds Polachek indulging in a variety of decadent activities — picking grapes, bathing, pouring wine — before reading a mysterious book to a group of children.
Polachek’s lyrics are ambling, yet visually evocative throughout the track. Against a backdrop of icy beats and gentle, atmospheric coos, she sings of “sexting sonnets under the tables,” “headless angels” — and somehow manages to work “cornucopeiac,” a delightful linguistic treat, seamlessly into her dreamlike prose.
“The overabundance of this world overwhelms me,” Polachek said in a statement accompanying the song’s release. “Sometimes it seems like ultimate tragedy, the earth being pillaged and destroyed for it. Sometimes it seems pre-human, beyond morality, sublime. I don’t pick sides, I just live here, with you. How does it feel, being so rich?”.
Before getting to that review and finishing with my thoughts about Billions, this DAZED article from February took a look at the amazing video. One reason why I love Billions so much is its amazing and truly memorable video:
“As well as sparking this creative defrosting, the Mediterranean country set the tone for the video in other ways: “Being in somewhere as both politically and geologically volatile as Italy, where there are active volcanoes, and people’s relationship with government and society is so fiery and individualistic in a way that’s very different from America. I was just so inspired and energised.” Liam Moore, the video’s art director, included discreet Italian details in the visuals, inspired by both 90s Italy and Ancient Rome. Below, Caroline Polachek, Matt Copson, Liam Moore, stylist Kat Typaldos and director of photography Alex Gvojic break down the visual references, inspiration and symbolism of “Billions”.
When Caroline Polachek and co-director Matt Copson put together the brief for their “Billions” video, the PDF they sent round to the team simply read, ‘In which Caroline makes wine and serves it to children.’ “That was the entire pitch for video,” the singer says. “And I remember, on first glance everyone’s reaction was like, ‘Okay…?’ But once we saw it on camera, there was this magical ripple of understanding that went through all of us on set.”
‘Magical’ is a good adjective to begin describing the Caroline Polachek visual universe, as are ‘surreal’, ‘cerebral’ and ‘fantastical’. Or, as she described her vision for debut solo album Pang: “expressionist storybook goth”. Her videos for “Door”, “So Hot You’re Hurting My Feelings” and “Bunny Is A Rider” have an otherworldly and apocalyptic quality; taking influence from the hyper-modern shapes of old Disney movies and 90s Versace ad campaigns. In “Billions”, an extension of this world she’s built, Polachek picks and squashes dewy grapes, cleans off the debris in a copper bath, before decanting the liquid into ornate glassware and giving it to an audience of children”.
PHOTO CREDIT: Terrence O'Connor
THE BRIEF
Caroline Polachek: When I was younger my mom would take me and my sister up to Vermont every summer to this country house that had no TV or video player, no radio, or anything. And she would always bring these big volumes of illustrated myths. There were Greek myths and Arthurian legends and then of course, like the house was filled with hundreds of volumes of National Geographic so I remember as a kid just completely losing track of time, sitting on the couch with the crickets outside and just completely becoming absorbed by the stories.
Over the course of the pandemic, I started adopting a mythological perspective on our contemporary situation, in terms of politicians lying, disease, fires, volcanoes erupting. Rather than looking at these as necessarily contemporary conditions, I started realising that humans have been dealing with this for forever. And I felt very connected with people living in ancient civilisations. It helped humanise the whole experience of being alive in a chaotic time. And so I wanted to bring that feeling of connection with the past and the future into the video.
Alex Gvojic: Caroline and Matt came to me with a really strong visual treatment. They are really good at crafting a world that feels both familiar and foreign at the same time. We were interested in creating a theatrical world that still felt alive, and were inspired by surrealist cinema. And Björk’s “Venus As A Boy”.
PHOTO CREDIT: Terrence O'Connor
THE DECANTING SCENE
Caroline Polachek: I stumbled upon Tim Drier, the glassworker, because I follow this Instagram account I’m obsessed with called Secret Goblet Society. It posts a lot of contemporary and ancient glassware. I love how musical and decadent and gorgeous goblets are in general, but when I saw Tim’s work, I was like, ‘Oh my god, it looks like music.’ Frankly, I’ve been looking for an opportunity to incorporate those shapes for a while. The feeling of flowing forward in time was something we thought about in the cinematography and keeping things very twisty and fluid.
Liam Moore: For the pouring scene, Caroline and I couldn’t find anything that quite replicated the magic of [Drier’s] glasses. So I decided to reach out and he very generously sent us his glasses to use in the video, which was a true thrill. They’re such stunning objects that we really wanted those to be the star of that scene.
PHOTO CREDIT: Terrence O'Connor
THE STORYTIME SCENE
Caroline Polachek: The video is fun as a comment on pop culture, which is, you know, intoxicating the youth. But it also plays into one of the last remaining taboos that we have in society, which is the bad mother. Women are expected to be caregiving and responsible. And we expect this from women on a very, very deep level. With men you have all kinds of clichés, like criminal urges, being badly behaved – a bad boy is an icon, and so is a bad girl, but the bad mother figure is something that is still very repellent. I was interested in dipping a toe into it. It won’t be the first time that I play with it either, because I find it to be very interesting.
Kat Typaldos: It felt to me like an irreverent Mother Goose moment, reading to these children who are drinking the wine from the grapes she carefully harvested. I think we wanted the look to feel sensual and a little irresponsible – naturally Vivienne Westwood made sense! We paired it with Caroline’s grandma’s net headscarf and the magical Capezio shiny hosiery and nude fishnets to mirror the top half. My favourite detail is the olive green silk undies that were underneath that would flash in a more subtle Basic Instinct moment”.
PHOTO CREDIT: Terrence O'Connor
Apparently a new album is coming, but we have not got a set date for it yet. I think it is a matter of time before a firm date is set. Billions is likely to feature on it. Just before rounding things off, here is an interesting take on Caroline Polachek’s remarkable Billions:
“The overabundance of this world overwhelms me," Caroline Polachek says in the notes accompanying her latest single, "Billions." With abundance comes the inevitable risk of corruption, be it in interpersonal, political or financial, and she tackles this head on with her trademark lush, multi-layered songwriting.
"Lies like a sailor / But he loves like a painter / Oh, billions"—the romantic abundance she sings of feels both nourishing and virulent, but most of all, too tempting to let go of. Gasps of satisfaction after each line, and sudden switches in her vocal register from enthralled to hostile, add a dash of musical theater to the proceedings. Elsewhere, Danny L Harle's electronics carve out a magisterial ambience. A fervent pulse and some Eastern-tinged percussion trickle down like syrup, giving "Billions" a regal, almost ancient (and decadent) aura. The track culminates with a huge chorus of "I've never felt so close to you," sung by London's Trinity Boys & Girls Choir. It's beautiful but eerily hypnotic, like the chants of wide-eyed cult members, as if to say: although the pillaging of the world and her sanity are painful to endure, it still technically counts as a warped form of intimacy”.
Its marvellous and hypnotising video is matched by a song that ranks alongside the best of 2022. Billions is proof that Caroline Polachek is one of the finest artists in the world. I can tell she is going to be releasing music of the highest quality for many more years. I cannot wait for a new album from her. I think that everyone who loves her music – and that is a lot of people! – really hope that this…
COMES soon enough.