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Mar 03, 2022 Web Exclusive By Matt the Raven

It’s hard not to like the expansive pastoral sounds explored on “Dark blue,” the opening track and lead single from the self-titled debut album by London-based eight-piece caroline. A slow, pressure cooker built around a strummed, looped guitar line that’s bolstered with strings, a slightly creepy choral line, and a pleasant cacophony of motley instrumentation, before fading out with an echoing tick-tock. With touchstones that include Yo La Tengo—and to a lesser degree, Explosions in the Sky—it’s an otherworldly beauty.

Much like avant-pop experimentalists The Books, the offbeat synergy of unconventional dynamism and melodic weirdness on caroline is decidedly an acquired taste. But while the other nine tracks on the album exhibit a similar eclectic adventurism, none quite capture the magic of the opener. The closest are songs such as “Good morning (red)” and “IWR.” Each has some endearing qualities with fluttering strings, quiet guitars, and accidental atmospherics, but are somewhat directionless; whereas “Engine (eavesdropping)” turns into an improvised noise-fest that would be fun to play but is hard to listen to. Elsewhere, with its quirky title “Skydiving onto the library roof” shows some promise of taking off but ultimately never does, leaving the listener wanting more. Conversely, short tracks such as “messen #7” and “hurtle” are barren instrumentals that seem like they are searching for some structure that is never found and end up being disruptions in tranquility.

Caroline should be lauded for ignoring convention and exploring sound manipulations. But in their effort to defy categorization by creating sonic pastiches from fragments of widely varying genres, along with their aversion to capitalization, they too often stray from creating compelling processed sound portraits such as “Dark blue” and instead end up with bristly and frazzled sketches, rendering the album as an auditory adventure will neither wow the listener nor will it disappoint. (www.caroline.band)

Author rating: 5/10