Channeling pop’s ultimate climax: How ‘Les Fluers’ inspires Caroline Polachek’s work

Posted On September 22, 2024September 22, 2024

There are few songs in music history that verge on perfection, but ‘Les Fleurs’ by Minnie Riperton is one of them. Forming the opening track to her 1970 album, Come to My Garden, the song was penned by Charles Stepney and Richard Rudolph and performed by Riperton. It showed off Riperton’s flair for vocal delivery and layering, the songwriters’ penchant for surrealist lyrical storytelling and, perhaps notably, their combined efforts to create a sonic climax. The latter element had a particularly potent impact on Caroline Polachek.

Polachek has been working in the music industry for much longer than most people give her credit for. She started out with Chairlift in the 2000s, finding some success and even appearing in an advert for Apple’s iPod. But it was only when Polachek went solo that she really came into her own. Now, she’s making some of the most interesting music in the pop realm, pulling off-kilter instrumentation and winding vocals to create an idiosyncratic sound.

The ‘So Hot You’re Hurting My Feelings’ singer may have found success in the age of the internet, but she often looks to the past for inspiration sonically. From Enya to Kate Bush, there are glimpses of the popstars who preceded her across her discography, and Riperton is no exception. Polachek has been particularly inspired by ‘Les Fleurs’, hoping to capture a similar sense of musical culmination in her own work.

During a chat with Marantz, Polachek shared her love for the song and declared it an “incredible piece of writing.” She shared her admiration for the vocal arrangements, but she seemed most enthused by the escalation in the song, the movement from subdued beats and calm vocals to swirling strings and endless repetitions of “la-la-la-la, la-la-la, la-la…” To her, ‘Les Fleurs’ is the “prime example of a kind of emotional ‘Odyssey Song.’”

For those unfamiliar with the term, Polachek describes an ‘Odyssey Song’ as a track that “develops and evolves and opens up into a kind of climactic ending. It needs to feel narrative and, like, the experience of dilation.” ‘Les Fleurs’ is certainly a prime example of this type of composition, a track that completely opens up by the time it finishes, like the flower it describes.

Both vocally and instrumentally, the track expands over its runtime, something that Polachek has often tried to emulate in her own work. “Every album I’ve ever made has one on it,” she added, referring to ‘Odyssey Songs’. Polachek didn’t elaborate on which songs have looked to emulate this feeling, leaving fans to figure out the sonic odysseys on each record.

There are several Polachek songs that could be considered odysseys in their own right. ‘Butterfly Net’, from her most recent record, Desire, I Want To Turn Into You, for example, moves from gently wavering synths and acoustic strums to full-blown wails and angelic backing vocals in its runtime. On her debut, ‘Insomnia’ features a similar increase in intensity, from swirling vocalisations to autotuned yells.

The influence of Riperton, and particularly of the potency of ‘Les Fleurs’, has clearly found its way into Polachek’s catalogue. Her songs are grand and ambitious, refusing to stick to the boundaries that pop has set out for her, and they grow with each word and each strum. Her discography is full of sonic odysseys, and there’s certainly more to come.

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