On nearly all of her albums,
Julia Holter bolsters her ambitious sonics with equally impressive literary references, but on
Something in the Room She Moves, those allusions make way for the elemental forces of life -- birth, death, and creativity. In the years following the sprawling brilliance of 2018's
Aviary,
Holter became reacquainted with all of these forces. She mourned the loss of her nephew; worked on projects ranging from the score to
In My Own Time: A Portrait of Karen Dalton to the
Alex Temple and
Spektral Quartet collaboration
Behind the Wallpaper; and became a mother for the first time. Like
Tirzah and
Katie Gately,
Holter excels at translating the joy, fear, and exhaustion of creating and caring for a new life into powerfully expressionistic music. To channel the seemingly infinite possibilities of beginnings, she doubles down on
Aviary's fragmented yet flowing compositions and reactive instrumentation. Rubbery fretless bass, twittering flutes, and toy instruments form a radiant playground of sound on "Sun Girl," a near-perfect fusion of
Holter's pop and experimental impulses that also recalls
Animal Collective and
Broadcast at their most bewitching and disorienting. Later, when she muses on the intensity of her love on "Talking to the Whisper," she stirs up a blustery free-jazz coda. The album's narratives are equally in flux. On the title track,
Holter's surroundings shift around her, meshing domestic reality with surreal fantasies. Though
Something in the Room She Moves is often as complex as
Aviary, it's not nearly as weighty a listening experience as that album was. Instead, its pieces swirl like water, creating an ever-changing yet consistently infectious sense of wonder. The feeling that
Holter has unlocked a divine mystery is particularly potent on "Spinning," a hypnotic invocation of creativity itself driven by her alternately sparring and soaring vocals. She uses the primal intensity of the voice to illustrate the physicality of her approach on "Meyou," where the feral vocalizations of
Nite Jewel's
Ramona Gonzalez,
Mia Doi Todd,
Holter, and others blur the line between ancient ritual and avant-garde performance piece. No matter how abstract the album gets, the feelings
Holter expresses always come first. Whether it's the caressing connectedness of "Evening Mood" or the air of pensive devotion on "Who Brings Me," this emotional immediacy makes
Something in the Room She Moves an exciting and affecting addition to
Holter's body of work. ~ Heather Phares
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