Caroline in the Garden – “This Peak”

I’m so impressed with the quality of the production of Caroline in the Garden’s first EP “This Peak”. As soon as you hit play on “This Peak”, you are taken to a dreamy garden of sorrow and beauty swaying in the synths. Caroline’s Atlanta-based project is a perfect example of something that is both familiar and new at the same time.

The EP does a great job of incorporating piano melodies with lush synth orchestration that would make any 80s pop fan happy. If you have ever lost yourself in Kate Bush records or early Madonna cuts, you’ll find a spiritual successor in Caroline’s work.

The collaboration with Luke Mertz of Motion Cntrl adds depth to Caroline’s vision, with additional instrumentation from PJ Brown & Her Resistance members filling out the soundscape perfectly.

There’s something timeless about this record that makes it hard to place in any specific era. One minute you’re listening to New Wave music from the 80s and the next you’re listening to the female artists of the 90s Lilith Fair. Caroline’s background in Philadelphia’s art-rock scene clearly informed her musical sensibilities, but this solo project shows her stepping confidently into her own artistic garden.

Caroline in the Garden is an artist who understands the power of emotion in pop music, and who has delivered songs that are both personal and epic, nostalgic and contemporary, and I absolutely can’t wait to see where Caroline takes her gorgeous sound next, so make sure you follow her journey on social media to catch all the musical magic she’ll undoubtedly continue to create throughout 2025.