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LP / Format
Columbia / Label
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CRITIC REVIEWS
90
‘PANG’ marks the beginning of a new chapter and confirms its position as one of the most singular, captivating records of the year.
90
Pang is a remarkable debut album assured of its legitimacy and brilliance, one that should be celebrated for its shimmering beauty and the success of its authorial intent.
90
Whereas Arcadia and Drawing the Target felt like experiments, in theatrical pop and minimal synth, respectively, Pang has arrived fully-formed. It is sometimes symphonic and operatic, sometimes poppy and danceable, and wholly arresting.
90
Polachek’s range, her penchant for leaving her gasps and deep breaths in her vocal tracks, her carefully thought-over phrasing — these tie Pang together into one very earwormy book of spells.
90
With 2019's Pang, her first album released under her own name, Polachek further distills her approach with a collection of deeply emotive songs that showcase her delicate vocals and intricate pop sensibilities.
9mo
80
An immense, nearly overwhelming spaciousness takes over Pang, which is intricately produced and layered with resplendent, crystalline trinkets of noise and sound unspooling around Polachek, whose vocals, immaculate and exacting, are amplified and crushed by reverb and vocoder.
80
Bold and brazen – a yearning pang in sonic form – this album is a concentration of Polachek’s previous releases. She’s combined the joy of Chairlift, the atmospheric mastery of Ramona Lisa and the experimentalism of CEP. The result is a Caroline Polachek record in its most distilled and fully realised form.
80
It is great to see Caroline Polachek giving a go at being an independent pop artist, and this album makes it feasible that she one day becomes a household name in the genre.
80
Overall, Pang is a vivid and melodious portrait of a restless heart.
80
It's hard to deny just how sweet, cleanly produced, and fantastical the bulk of Pang is.
80
The former Chairlift singer maintains her creative synth-based pop proclivities, but opens up her personal life in more gut-punching ways than we've heard from Polachek before.
80
Pang introduces itself a little too quietly to be completely satisfying. However, once you give the album some time and understand its singular rhythms, there are treasures to be found there.
9mo
73
The former Chairlift singer-songwriter centers her sweeping solo debut on her powerful voice, crafting love songs about the moment of surrender, the pain preceding it, and the euphoria after.
70
Best listened to sad and lonely in your bedroom, Pang is the perfect dance album for smart and sensitive boys and girls after their day’s journaling are done.
11mo
60
Polachek remains too much of a class act, a little too wedded to conventional beauty on songs like Look At Me Now, to really take her pop to the bleeding edge.
60
An album this tepid--which is to say, not completely tepid, but tepid enough--from a talent that immense, though, can only register as a minor failure. She can do better.
11mo
After finally giving this album the attention and time it deserves, I have concluded it to be my favorite album of 2019 this far. Not even close.
If PANG were a museum exhibit, it would be one large room with one central piece, Caroline's vocals. While the vocal centerpiece is impressive on its own, it's beauty is accentuated by the lush production throughout the album's runtime, which would act as the lighting for the exhibit, showing the piece's curves and imperfections, but ultimately ... read more
If PANG were a museum exhibit, it would be one large room with one central piece, Caroline's vocals. While the vocal centerpiece is impressive on its own, it's beauty is accentuated by the lush production throughout the album's runtime, which would act as the lighting for the exhibit, showing the piece's curves and imperfections, but ultimately ... read more
It all started with an iPod Nano advert. What was just a experimental pop group formed during her art school days in 2006, Caroline Polachek is built to become a pop star, or more. The front woman of now disbanded indie pop act Chairlift and side projects (Ramona Lisa and CEP), she finally came through a debut brimming with daring and defiant work of refreshing proportions with her distinctive vocal style and contemporary kind of pop experimentation that shines through the half hour run-time. ... read more
Caroline Polachek has a distinct fingerprint in the pop world. She is a presence that has always added to a project rather than distract. She knows her voice well and wields it like a master swordsman. On Pang, Polachek is exposed and vulnerable. She narrates her insecurities through songs that bend reality into new and fantastic shapes. She escapes her nightmares through bright melodies and delectable bops. As someone who allows insidious doubts to fill my head, Polachek's debut is a friendly ... read more
one of the banger albums for this month. her voice isso holy! the end track says it all. 😍😍😍
faves:
• new normal
• hit me where it hurts
• insomnia
• ocean of tears
• hey big eyes
• go as a dream
• caroline shut up
• door
• parachute
faves:
• new normal
• hit me where it hurts
• insomnia
• ocean of tears
• hey big eyes
• go as a dream
• caroline shut up
• door
• parachute
Ms. Polachek's experience in radio pop sensibilities shouldn't deter passersby from her genre accepting sound, but it also shouldn't over exaggerate the simplicity of her work either. She strikes a fine line between unconventional and accessible veneer. What, with her (albiet light) touches of ambient, acoustics and glitch pop. Her vocal work is fine and dandy, nothing I could nit pick, but it's really the production table that gives her a leg up. (A good speaker listen, but an even better ... read more
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Track List
- The Gate
- Pang
- New Normal
- Hit Me Where It Hurts
- I Give Up
- Look At Me Now
- Insomnia
- Ocean of Tears
- Hey Big Eyes
- Go As a Dream
- Caroline Shut Up
- So Hot You're Hurting My Feelings
- Door
- Parachute
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1y
my favorite track from this album changes every few hours... currently it's INSOMNIA.
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Added on: July 24, 2019