Desire, I Want to Turn Into You, the second studio album from alt-pop artist Caroline Polacheck, is a solid follow-up to her 2019 album, Pang.

Polachek started her career as a member of the indie-pop band Chairlift, releasing three albums with her bandmates under that moniker. Leaving the band after 2017, Polacheck started her own solo career using her own name.

With Pang, she found some critical success, along with a viral TikTok hit with “So Hot You’re Hurting My Feelings.” The album combined alt-pop with synth-pop to create a somewhat mystical and murky sound.

Though her new project has the same atmosphere, her songwriting seems to have improved, making Desire a much more cohesive and fun record to listen to, certainly surpassing her previous work in quality.

The opener, “Welcome To My Island,” perhaps shows her combo of alt and synth pop at its best, with grandiose vocal sections from Polacheck underscoring sections of deadpan delivery over low-key synths.

The track’s idiosyncratic lyrics and matter-of-fact vocals start the project off in a way that will leave the listener interested to hear more, whether they actually enjoy the music or not. The music simply has an air of mysticism to it.

“Bunny Is A Rider,” released in 2021, continues the trend of peculiar lyrics and easygoing synths. Polacheck sings about distance with an unforgettable hook — “Bunny is a rider / Satellite can’t find her” — that will be sure to cement itself as an irreplaceable earworm in any listener’s head.

On “Sunset,” Polachek experiments with sounds of Spanish guitar that lead to easily the most majestic and beautiful moment of the album. The warmth and intimacy the lyrics create make the track a powerful pit-stop on the journey of the record.

The problem with the record though, is the same that Pang had as well — at points the album fades in and out from track to track without any real direction. The songs blend together, making each individual moment quite forgettable past the halfway point of the LP.

“Fly to You” even features Grimes and Dido, yet their contributions mostly seem inconsequential. It’s honestly hard to remember that they are even on the album at all.

The last three songs in particular feel relatively identical despite having quite decent sonic variations.

With that being said, the first half of the album is spectacular, and any alt-pop or synth-pop fan should absolutely check it out, leaving the second half for die-hard Polacheck fans only.