Photograph: Andy Hall/The Observer
The first time we meet Caroline Polachek tonight, at the left-field US pop singer’s biggest UK date yet, it is as a disembodied vocal, halfway between a wolf howl and an orgasm. A clock has counted down to her arrival, as though we were in an arena. The rust-brown stage set suggests hillocks in silhouette, the biggest implying a volcano, which, like Chekhov’s gun, is there to erupt. (No one, save the band, was expecting so much catharsis so early though.) Polachek’s three-piece are parked in one corner, as though huddled against impact.
It’s fitting that we hear Polachek before we see her. When she was 17, she sang in four choirs at once, plus an a cappella group and not one, but two nu-metal bands, on top of her opera training. As a 21st-century pop vocalist, Polachek pretty much has her own AutoTune built in (auto-AutoTune?), normally deployed with restraint. This clarion-like burst of lungpower sets the tone of her new album, Desire, I Want to Turn Into You – released on Valentine’s Day to coincide with this triumphant gig. Both mark Polachek’s move from cult nicheness to wider renown. There are many reasons why she has sold out this 5,300-capacity show; why second nights are being added to her North American tour.
