Caroline Polachek Wanders Barcelona’s Streets and Beaches in Idyllic Video for New Single “Sunset”

Caroline Polachek is back with “Sunset,” her third proper single since the 2019 release of her debut album under her own name, Pang. Released alongside a music video, the track has a lot to live up to: Its predecessors “Bunny Is a Rider” and “Billions” were among Paste’s top songs of 2021 and 2022 (at mid-year), respectively.

Co-produced by Polachek and Sega Bodega, “Sunset” is a bewitching, escapist swerve that sets the singer’s ethereal voice against a bright and breezy instrumental. Acoustic guitar dances across handclaps and a Balearic beat, as Polachek serenades a lover who gives her hope when nothing else feels right: “But boy, your patience is a magic and a medicine / ‘Cause every spiral brings me back into your arms again / No regrets, ‘cause you’re my sunset / Fiery red, forever fearless,” she sings, punctuating each chorus by urging, “Don’t look back, let’s ride away.” Polachek alludes subtly to the darkness of modern times, but never lets them cloud the halcyon track, instead finding peace and joy in passionate love.

“Resolution is so rare in life, but music is unnaturally full of it. A sunset is the biggest pop cliche ever, because it’s a perfect resolution,” Polachek says of her new song in a statement. “Ennio Morricone passed away a few months before Salvador (Sega Bodega) and I started ‘Sunset,’ and the folkloric, epic tone of the spaghetti western sunset played on my mind. I wanted an operatic chorus with no lyrics, but salted with some very real disillusionment: past all the distraction, dead ends and false promises of the world is the love we too often take for granted. That’s my sunset.”