Caroline Says – The Lucky One

A beautiful slice of self-aware introspection...

Much like her previous indie-folk albums, Caroline Says (born Caroline Sallee) brings beauty to an otherwise melancholy and, at times, haunting body of work. Tinged with regret, Caroline revisits her past. Or maybe she never let her past go at all? 

‘The Lucky One’ explores life and death and everything in between, but the introspective album looks at how our pasts can continue to affect us. 

Caroline moved between the three cities while writing the songs for ‘The Lucky One’ which has led to three different perspectives on the record. The title track “The Lucky One’ is a heart-achingly sweet opener which alludes to a feeling optimism, while being sad as all hell. 

In comparison to tracks such as ‘Winter Is Cold’ on 2017’s debut album, ‘50 Million Elvis Fans Can’t Be Wrong’ to ‘Me Culpa’ on 2018 follow-up ‘No Fool Like An Old Fool’, the songs on ‘The Lucky One’ feel very much in line with Caroline Says’ personal sound and yet they are darker, sonically richer than previous offerings. It seems she has been away for a few years and has really gotten to know herself and work on her music before releasing this next record.

‘The Lucky One’ comprises of 12 tracks, yet they blend into one so seamlessly and so cohesively, that we could listen to twelve hundred tracks of this nature. (For now, we will ‘make do’ by putting this album on repeat for the foreseeable!).

While Caroline’s debut examined how the past has a funny way of rearing its big old ugly head in the here-and-now, with ‘The Lucky One’ she takes a deeper dive into these hometown memories – from spending time in hometown bars to late-night swims –  and the result is an album lush with bittersweet, all-consuming emotion. However, Caroline’s work is raw but not devastatingly so. You feel safe in her company. You trust the journey she is taking you on with ‘The Lucky One’.

As mentioned, Caroline has moved around a lot in her life (moving between Alabama, Brooklyn and Texas). ‘Faded and Golden’ was inspired by the feeling of not being able to feel at home once more in a place she was previously so familiar with. Lead single ‘Faded and Golden’ also reflects on the changing nature of friendships and the reality of the present (when catching up with old friends) can really challenge ideas one might have about their youth.

On the track, Caroline explains: “Relationships are, first and foremost, ideas. That’s what allows relationships to persist even when we’re apart. We may yearn for an old friend or lover, especially one from our teenage years and our hometown. But there is a bittersweetness to any reunion. They may shatter the memory we’ve made of them.”

To emphasise these points, ‘Faded And Golden’ includes the lyrics: “The house where you don’t live no more / When I drive by I still call it yours.”

Although they sound a million miles apart, ‘Faded And Golden’ is actually giving ‘Missing’ by Everything But The Girl and, while they are both great songs in their own right, the feeling of being unable to shake nostalgia, or heartbreak, is undeniably present in both.

(In the 90s hit ‘Missing’, Tracey Thorn sings: “I step off the train / I’m walking down your street again / And past your door / But you don’t live there anymore.”)

Back to Caroline Says. On ‘Lightning’, Caroline sings about catching herself “looking around for you”. There is such a tenderness to both the lyrics and the almost diary-like way they are written and sung. 

Meanwhile, ‘Dust’ was inspired by a road trip Sallee went on to a mountainous region, where she was hoping to clear her head. She was left disappointed by the dust storm , which was awaiting her. 

With its on the nose title, ‘Always Looking Back’ sums up what the entire album is about and the more playful sound of it nods to her previous albums too. 

As mentioned, there is much beauty in this album, from the lyrics to the vocal delivery to the ideas behind the lyrics that bring the entire album together. As far as introspective albums go, this one feels so self-aware and so very well communicated to its listeners. There are no doubts about what Caroline Says is feeling here. She has captured a set of lived emotions and shared them – for us listeners to experience along with her.

7/10

Words: Narzra Ahmed

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