Something In The Room She Moves (studio album) by Julia Holter

Julia Holter's had quite a strange career. After slowly working towards a more accessible sound and building mainstream critical approval, culminating in 2015's Have You In My Wilderness, she followed this up with the sprawling and uncompromising (and also totally brilliant) Aviary 3 years later. It's been a long wait for a record since then and with that track record it's been tough to get a sense of what kind of direction would be next. We find out on Soemthing in the Room She Moves, a quieter album which follows all of Holter's fascinations into a minimal direction. Tracks are often long and repetitive, building atmosphere instead of playing as direct as prior releases. There's a lot that's familiar but as a collected work there's not much I've heard that's like it.

Holter is perhaps only second to MF DOOM in her interest in how the actual sounds of words can create strange shapes in music. As an example, on Spinning she tears apart all of the lyrics into paired up monosylables, giving them the exact same rhythm as the 1-2 of the instrumentation. The effect is that you become totally surrounded by the simple rhythm, it's all you can focus on. This ultra staccato approach is used a number of times across the record but it's far from the only technique Holter uses. Marteria is more classically put together, with words almost blending together, it would fit nicely on Aviary and Sun Girl makes use of repetition to the point that the title loses its sense of meaning and the title track alternates between a similar approach to Spinning and an elongating of certain syllables, I don't think I've heard a voice sound this much like an instrument. The record probably pushes things a bit far on Meyou, a track that sounds like Meredith Monk performing after leaving all her instruments at home, there's some nice harmonies but not nearly enough to fill 6 minutes. The record overall feels a little long for something that requires so much patience and attention, maybe a more slender 8 track release would have worked better?

Album Rating: 69.60
(696/10)

22.03.2024

Julia Holter (USA): Something In The Room She Moves

1.Sun Girl 78
2.These Morning 74
3.Something In The Room She Moves 85
4.Materia 69
5.Meyou 24
6.Spinning 67
7.Ocean 66
8.Evening Mood 81
9.Talking To The Whisper 68
10.Who Brings Me 84

In order:

Julia Holter (SITRSM) - Something In The Room She Moves 85
Julia Holter (SITRSM) - Who Brings Me 84
Julia Holter (SITRSM) - Evening Mood 81
Julia Holter (SITRSM) - Sun Girl 78
Julia Holter (SITRSM) - These Morning 74
Julia Holter (SITRSM) - Materia 69
Julia Holter (SITRSM) - Talking To The Whisper 68
Julia Holter (SITRSM) - Spinning 67
Julia Holter (SITRSM) - Ocean 66
Julia Holter (SITRSM) - Meyou 24

very very nice work !!