John Bemis
Web Producer
@bemiscourant
Julia Holter’s 2013 masterpiece Loud City Song opens with nothing except for careful wisps of her voice. That voice, gorgeous yet trenchant, immediately paints her as a puzzling ethereal being, calling you to some unnamed place where she is the master puppeteer. Meant to be a musical interpretation of Colette’s 1944 novella GiGi, the record wasn’t so focused on her voice’s potential for pop, but more on her ability to create an enticing, sinister and consuming environment.
It was a realm full of hazy verse, strange washes of synthetic and acoustic instruments, skits of chanting and general avant-garde successes. Moments of effective songcraft interlaced within this very arty composure suggested the potential pop breakthrough that her yet-undefined self and clear talent could yield.
Such is what she’s delivered here. Her ambition on Have You In My Wilderness is just as beautifully precise, yet focused in an entirely new direction. It’s her own version of an age-old departure, from White Light//White Heat to Loaded; from proving her artistic concept to displaying a knack for more direct pop forms. The arrangements are large and colorful, her voice is more expressive, and she’s less afraid to be personal.
What has perhaps suffered in making a record so palpably genuine is that, however delicately so, the veil has completely come off; unafraid to discuss usual tropes love and longing, she doesn’t come across so much a careful dramatist as she does a deft baladist. The free-verse poetics on track’s like ‘Vasquez’ sounds slightly more contrived when placed within such a heavenly domain.
This is not to suggest that her new sense of individual certainty isn’t the greatest thing that Wilderness has going for it. Her range of effect has skyrocketed; the lustful croons of ‘How Long?‘ are legitimately haunting, the entrancing fullness of Julia’s voice on ‘When the Sea Called Me Home’ is among her most nerve-tingling moments on record.
With Holter’s discography now fully fleshed and diversified with this record in it, the idea of her moving even further is exciting and not something we shouldn’t at least hope for; she’s only gotten better with every release. The creativity at work is clear despite the more straight-ahead approach, sounding so effortless and natural but not feeling an easy, time-filler. She’s trying her skilled hands at next thing, yet again bouncing her ideas off the wall to find that everything sticks.
