What do you get when you combine acerbic Gen Z wit, timeless pop hooks, and more than a little chaos? Well, you get a few things: you get pop classicism, done in an entirely iconoclastic way; you get abjectly strange, ruthlessly catchy songwriting; and, of course, you get a band like Caroline & Claude. Since releasing their debut single “Stir The Pot” in mid-2021, the acerbic Sydney brother-sister duo have caught the attention of discerning fans and tastemakers at home as well as in the US and UK, smearing more chaos across the decidedly staid pop landscape with each successive single. Already championed by BBC Radio 1’s Clara Amfo and Jack Saunders, Triple J and NME, the pair are now releasing their long-awaited debut EP Nan’s USB, a record that makes good on the promise of their early releases. Twisting freewheeling anarchy and lucid, youthful truth-telling into gleaming barbed wires, it’s a pop record that’s sensitive, smart, and brilliantly deranged. 

Sydney-born and Adelaide-bred, Caroline and Claude were, in a sense, born into music. Performance was part of their lives from a young age, whether in the form of the jam sessions they’d have with their extended family, or putting on shows for their parents, Wayne and Jules. But their musical lineage goes even further than that: Caroline and Claude’s grandparents are singers, and used to sing in jazz cafes in their native India. In other words, the fruit that comes to bear in Caroline and Claude’s music grows from a perfect push-pull between nature and nurture: the result of innate musical genes given space to grow and create with impunity. 

In mid-2020, forced into pandemic-induced isolation together, Caroline & Claude started to make music, and soon realised they’d stumbled upon something special. Their first song they made was the whimsical, cinematic “Fuck You” – this isn’t a duo who mince words – a track that, since its release in early-November, has already become a calling card for the duo. The opener to Nan’s USB, “Fuck You” sets the tone for a debut EP that’s prickly and never-too-reverent, even at its most openhearted. “I’m Where I’m Supposed To Be”, a highlight, plays like classic doo-wop by way of Tyler, the Creator; “iOS” is a surreal soundscape that splits the difference between expansive psych-pop and the intimacy of Billie Eilish. Elsewhere, they nod to Dick Dale and classic Western scores, pen a moonlit ballad destined for prom scenes in teen movies, and reorient cloud rap for an anxious generation. 

The strength of Nan’s USB capitalises on the breathless praise that’s already been heaped upon Caroline & Claude by everyone from Rolling Stone (“A harmony that’s unique and entirely theirs”) to Brooklyn Vegan (“very catchy and charming”) and Triple J (“Dreamy and gorgeously toned”) and satiates a fanbase that’s been growing with each new BBC Radio 1 play and Triple J rotation add. The adoration Caroline & Claude have received already, at this nascent stage in their career, is the result of the unique magic they conjure together: introvert wit and extrovert emotionality intertwining to create witty, bombastic tales for a new generation of pop fans.