JULIA HOLTER

Something In The Room She Moves (Domino)

“I like melody in a celestial way”, says Julia Holter, and certainly her songs seem as though they’ve been beamed in from outer space. She’s claimed that her sixth LP, Something In The Room She Moves, has “a corporeal focus”, yet like its predecessors it feels like another out-of-body experience.

To those of us hankering for a return to the crystal-clear and weightless avant-pop of 2015’s exceptional Have You In My Wilderness after dense, overblown follow-up Aviary’s deep dive back into experimentalism, Holter throws an initial bone: lead single and first track Sun Girl – its joyous, enveloping maximalism on the same wavelength as Animal Collective. But by the midway point and Meyou, six minutes of blended acapella vocals, the album has somewhat lost its way and started to test the patience. Thankfully, Spinning salvages things for a strong second half.

The general palette of Something In The Room She Moves is familiar – voice, synths, strings, trilling wind instruments, lithe fretless bass – as is the lush, sensuous musicality, but you just wish Julia Holter didn’t keep the listener at arm’s length quite so often. 

words BEN WOOLHEAD