Hugo Comte
It's been a year since Caroline Polachek unleashed her seismic debut solo album Pang, a record that feels almost prophetic in retrospect — "So Hot You're Hurting My Feelings" just hits different after seven months of quarantining. To coronate the record's first year in rotation, she's sharing an extended cut of the album's portal-like introduction, "The Gate."
In an Instagram post, Polachek expounded on how the song came together one night in Brooklyn: "I was feeling very isolated and lonely that night, knowing that nobody was at their phones but still checking over and over... it felt like I’d been waiting at a closed gate for someone to return the notes I’d been passing through and nobody was appearing. I switched on my Juno-106 and my fingers found their way to these chords.. I played them over and over, it felt so hopeful and comforting. The lyrics came out of nowhere, and I realized it was the paradoxical message I’d been waiting to hear that night and probably never would."
Hear the ten-minute version of "The Gate" below, and then head here to read our 2019 interview with Polachek.
