Tuesday, November 21, 2023

Julia Holter - Sun Girl

Finally! Some new music from Julia Holter. I hope this is a signal that a new album is imminent. I absolutely loved Aviary (2018) which had a huge, cavernous sound that enveloped you. As with much of her music, her vocal(s) are truly sutured into the music as an instrument, weaving in and out of the orchestral flourishes. She draws from the syllabic grandeur of Cocteau Twins in that it's not necessarily the words that matter but how she says the words. Definitely a lot of odd phrasing of text.

I had the fortune of seeing her at the Warsaw venue in Greenpoint, Brooklyn on February 22, 2019 and it was mixed and presented impeccably. She played with a small ensemble of musicians who were truly zoned into the experience.

On this new track that just dropped, "Sun Girl," there's a hint of the heavy percussiveness (is that a word?) of Four Tet, but not as insistent or synthetic. As one might hope from a song called "Sun Girl," the song is unabashedly dipped in joyfulness -- no irony or cloying double message here.

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