Caroline in the Gardenโs debut EP This Peak stares into a mirror made of synth and stardust, melancholy, mesmerizing, and full of glittering shadows. The Atlanta-based artist taps into the ghosts of 80s pop and 90s piano queens. From the first track, โThe Underside,โ youโre dropped into a dreamy abyss, where piano cascades like tears on porcelain and Carolineโs voice rises with raw, aching clarity. Her delivery is velvet and venom, tender yet pulsing with emotional electricity, while the backing vocals hover like sirens luring you deeper.
Then thereโs the title track, โThis Peak.โ Itโs a haunting slow burn built on hard-hitting beats, hushed piano, and vocals that start off cool and calculating before catching fire. Itโs a mysterious, emotional climb that ends in a cathartic, voice-soaring crescendo, with electric guitars ringing out like alarm bells in a dream. The energy is elegant but uneasy, like dancing in stilettos on a cracked glass floor.
โEnnuiโ captures the American dreamโs slow-burn disillusionment with eerie precision. Itโs orchestral, brooding, and bitter in the best way. Caroline sings with the weight of too much time and not enough meaning, capturing modern emotional exhaustion in a velvet fist. As strings swell and her voice dissolves into trailing echoes, youโre left in a heavy-lidded daze.
And then, just when you think sheโs done wrecking you, the โThis Peak (Power Station Crystal Station Remix)โ glides in like a glowing specter. Itโs the originalโs cooler, more cosmic cousin, waves of synth shimmer under muffled vocals that eventually rise to the heavens. Ethereal, hypnotic, and dripping with starlight, this remix is a perfect closer to an already spellbinding debut.
This Peak is a mood, a fever dream, a beautiful unraveling youโll want to get lost in again and again.
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Review by: Naomi Joan