caroline have announced caroline 2 deluxe

caroline have announced caroline 2 deluxe, the album features seven new tracks and out today digitally. In other news, caroline announced 2026 US tour dates today, their first in support of caroline 2. The band will play shows in the UK, EU and Primavera. The band are also sharing a live video of caroline 2 track ‘Two riders down’ filmed at Rewire festival at The Hague in April 2025.

caroline on the new tracks:

“These tracks are mostly early iterations of the songs released on caroline 2. Minimal acoustic versions of “Total euphoria”, “Coldplay cover” and “U R UR ONLY ACHING”; an impromptu version of “When I get home” recorded in Peckham Rye park in 2022); and a recording of the first time we ever played the core of “Song two”.

We have always loved the quality of phone and portable mic recordings: both how casual and informal they feel, but also because they tend to capture freer and more explorative playing in that precious writing stage, before a song congeals into something
solid. It feels like there is almost something mysterious at work in these recordings that can never be replicated or mimicked. As well as the ‘When I get home’ and ‘Song two’ demos, the final track on the release – ‘greek2go’ – is also a phone recording. It was recorded in what was then the empty shell of a former Greek dark kitchen, but has since become our studio – and is an improvisation with three guitars and singing in an empty, reverberant room. It never made it onto the album but it is a piece of music we are really proud of.

We have also included a recording of the club track from the first half of “When I get home”. This was recorded from the front bathroom of Avalon Cafe and is a track produced by our friends Daniel S Evans and Jennifer Walton.”

caroline’s founding members Casper Hughes, Jasper Llewellyn and Mike O’Malley began playing together in 2017. As the band’s sound kept expanding, so too did their line-up, eventually becoming an eight-piece completed by Freddy Wordsworth, Magdalena McLean, Oliver Hamilton, Hugh Aynsley and Alex McKenzie. By the time the cast settled towards the end of 2019, the songs too were expansive and emotive pieces. Their debut self-titled album caroline (released in Feb 2022) and mixed by John ‘Spud’ Murphy (black midi, Lankum).

“The first record was a compilation, but this one is a declaration,” says Llewellyn. “It’s more intentional,” adds O’Malley. Fleshed out over several songwriting trips, with the central three upping sticks to rural Scotland, with vocalist and viola player McLean then joining them in southern France, followed by writing sessions as a full eight-piece in Margate and Essex then recording in Ramsgate, bonds have become strengthened. “We were just about an eight-person band on the last one, but now we’re a proper eight- person band,” says Llewellyn.

Caroline
Caroline 2 deluxe
Tracklisting

1) _you never really get that far_ (Coldplay cover)
2) if you let them i’ll let them
3) U R UR ONLY ACHING (demo)
4) When I get home (demo)
5) Before you get home from the club bathroom
6) MCJ 19_05_23 _not to be unkind #2
7) greek2go