caroline announce new album ‘caroline 2’, collaborate with Caroline Polachek for new single

Less than a month on from their return with ‘Total euphoria’, London octet caroline have confirmed details of their second album - the aptly-named ‘caroline 2’ - and they’ve shared a new single with a very special guest indeed.

‘Tell me I never knew that’ doubles as the newest track to be lifted from their forthcoming sophomore full-length, and - in the most inspiring link-up since Lorde hopped onto Charli xcx’s ‘Girl, so confusing - features an appearance from none other than Caroline Polachek. “We used to call this one ‘Backstreet boys’ because the opening top line felt like a Backstreet Boys song,” the band have said, of their latest offering. “The main riff was written by Casper on acoustic guitar and stuck out as a really catchy, bouncy, hypnotic thing. We wrote the opening top line together and straight away we thought ‘this sounds like a melody that Caroline Polachek might sing’ in its hooky-ness. We sort of joked that we’d ask her to sing it but didn’t think it’d actually be on the cards, until about a year later when we sent her the half-finished song and she was up for it! 

“Caroline was amazing. She wrote a load of extra parts that gave the whole thing such a lift, and then spent a few hours tracking a load of more improvised parts. We were still recording at about 1.30am when we decided to call it, but there was no indication that Caroline was the slightest bit tired or that she had lost any momentum in her ability to sing, even though she’d been singing for about six hours. It was an inspiring thing to witness! We did a little bit more re-ordering together with Caroline a few weeks after the session and then the song was finally there.”

The track gets taken from the band’s forthcoming new album, which is set for release on 30th May via Rough Trade Records. Set to be eight tracks in length, the album will follow on from their 2022 self-titled debut, and opens with the band’s previous single ‘Total euphoria’, which landed last month. 

Check out the video for ‘Tell me I never knew that’, and check out the album’s tracklisting (which includes other excellent titles such as ‘Song two’ and ‘Coldplay cover’), below.