Caroline: Where's My Love
Temporary Residence

While it's tempting to note similarities between the alluring sounds of Múm and Caroline Lufkin, doing so seems entirely irrelevant the moment her entrancing material washes over you. The Okinawa-born artist casts a bewitching spell on all three of the EP's pieces, but it's the heavenly title track that proves most irresistible. After an arresting intro of soft tinkles, crystalline glistens, and crunchy beats, Caroline's fragile, angelic voice enters, dreamily pleading “Where's my love/The one for me,” and, though the effect is transfixing, her subsequent heartbreaking cry “Oooh, love, love come to me” is even more intoxicating. It's one of those all-too-rare transcendant moments where everything else momentarily falls by the wayside while you savour the song's spine-tingling effect. Lufkin then gives the song an also-captivating 'Magical Mix,' the original's lyrics reduced to lapping syllabic fragments and the focus now on sparkling piano and harp melodies and funky hip-hop rhythms. “Time Swells” closes the 13-minute single with a stately Múm-like lurch sweetened by the warm luster of her vocals and the song's soaring melodies. Though it's over quickly, Where's My Love is a ravishing teaser for the full-length one desperately hopes will follow.

October 2005