- Lush, arty pop about the overabundance of, well, everything.
- "The overabundance of this world overwhelms me," Caroline Polachek says in the notes accompanying her latest single, "Billions." With abundance comes the inevitable risk of corruption, be it in interpersonal, political or financial, and she tackles this head on with her trademark lush, multi-layered songwriting.
"Lies like a sailor / But he loves like a painter / Oh, billions"—the romantic abundance she sings of feels both nourishing and virulent, but most of all, too tempting to let go of. Gasps of satisfaction after each line, and sudden switches in her vocal register from enthralled to hostile, add a dash of musical theater to the proceedings. Elsewhere, Danny L Harle's electronics carve out a magisterial ambience. A fervent pulse and some Eastern-tinged percussion trickle down like syrup, giving "Billions" a regal, almost ancient (and decadent) aura. The track culminates with a huge chorus of "I've never felt so close to you," sung by London's Trinity Boys & Girls Choir. It's beautiful but eerily hypnotic, like the chants of wide-eyed cult members, as if to say: although the pillaging of the world and her sanity are painful to endure, it still technically counts as a warped form of intimacy.