Big-deal indie darling collaborations usually cause too much excitement for their own good. For every “Like I Used To” or “Problem with It,” there are dozens of weakly rewarmed B-sides or “remixes” with hastily tacked-on verses or an errant chorus harmony.
Luckily for us, Caroline Polachek and Weyes Blood’s newly incarnated “Butterfly Net” avoids those half-assed pitfalls with a total facelift, breathing a whole new life into the Desire, I Want to Turn Into You power ballad.
The pair have performed the song live as a duet a handful of times over the past year, but their official take of the track finds the song bottomed out, a weightlessly opalescent, detail-rich reimagining. Rather than lean into the baroque ‘70s worship of Weyes Blood’s solo work or the glitch-happy tendencies of Polachek’s other remixes, this “Butterfly Net” finds the duo traversing new ground together, finding a shared musical language that feels distinct to their partnership.
At the risk of sounding blasphemous, I might actually prefer this new version over Polachek’s original recording — it sounds suspended in air, sloughing off the original’s vintage weight for something more timeless.