Caroline Polachek feat. Weyes Blood – Butterfly Net Review

Pairing two of the best vocalists working today together is a stroke of genius. Evidence is easily found of the essential additions Weyes Blood can give a track. Best of all is the Tim Heidecker masterpiece, Fear of Death. For Caroline Polachek though, whose Desire, I Want to Turn Into You still lingers in the mind as a potential selection for the record player, used only when trying to drown out the noise of pub-goers next door or to fill the silence of living alone, it creates an ultra-necessary yet out-there collaboration. Blood and Polachek present Butterfly Net out of the blue. Individually, they are responsible for two necessary, world-beating releases this century. 

Together? On par with their exceptional releases prior. An atmospheric powerhouse which relies just as much on the silences, the fragile instrumentals pooling together under Polachek and Blood. Butterfly Net was a strong piece of Desire, I Want to Turn Into You, and the differences between its album original and this Blood collaboration are clear to hear for those who have had this circling the shuffled, homemade playlists over the last year. Additional vocals are the key change, an extra layer of depth brought through with a sense of echoing through the void. Whatever the words to precede and follow – the bottom line is this. Weyes Blood featuring on a Caroline Polachek single is a major improvement. But that is not to say Butterfly Net has something missing. It is a fine song in its original form, the additions here bring about a wonderful second wind.  

It marks a piece of the larger Everlasting Edition puzzle. Extended editions of great works must now, more than ever, reach further than just demo additions. Polachek is aware of this, hence the additional materials found on Butterfly Net. A softer shape is taken, the strings and maudlin appeal of this, an almost nature-bound optimism and genuine turn is heard. It marks a departure from the original, the lengths of silence between punchy, powerful lyricisms are shortened here but hold their presence in a new voice. Hold on to what cannot exist or be held. Ultimately the core of Butterfly Net is still beating through this Blood collaboration, all that changes is sonic. Interpretations may remain but the instrumental changes and the drafting in of another sharp voice in alternative music bring on a new challenge. 

Butterfly Net survives, of course, for its sharp lyrical momentum, and the pointlessness of holding on to something which has no physicality. But this is the natural reaction Butterfly Net creates and muses on. Blood’s additions do not change this and thankfully not, though there was no danger of an overhaul in this message when she and Polachek share those same tones of possessiveness over an implicated existence. Still as heartbreaking as it sounded last year, the revitalised version of Butterfly Net is a true treat and a marked improvement on the original. Gone are the silences and the strokes of simple yet effective principles and drafted in its place is a bold and ambitious boom of folk-like highs which wrap themselves like a blanket, around the miserable existence of clinging to a feeling.