After working on other composition works alongside the birth of her first daughter, Julia Holter feels inclined to return to exploring such abstract concepts once more. In ‘Something in the Room She Moves’, Holter’s playful manner in exploring the dimensions of love imparts an undeniably moving beauty.
After exploring her sense of atmospheric baroque soundscapes within freeing pop sensibilities in the early-to-mid 2010s, her intrigue for chaotic spaces got a hold of her that eventually manifested in ‘Aviary’, a project where she finds a way to discover comfort within the cacophonies of modern social environments that can get overwhelming, with an execution that ends up less desirable as she pulls away that chaos to immediately simmer in soothing spaces that don’t exactly land that thematic conception. However, after creating some soundtrack work and classical collaborations in the early 2020s, there is still a curiosity towards wandering through abstract concepts, returning once more to the fray six years later for her newest solo album on ‘Something in the Room She Moves’.
Compared to the extended structure of ‘Aviary’ with its fractious spikes of beautiful textures tossed over disorderly improvised compositions that hamper a lot of its overall execution, ‘Something in the Room She Moves’ pulls things back for a focused album flow, with the balancing point of conventional pop sensibilities and abstract ambiance working much well with the rack of lilting instrumental flourish, where the set of brighter horns, woodwinds, and chimes let Julia Holter’s sonic and conceptual aim stick even further. Due to the sense of playful and gorgeous compositions, there is a lot to be enjoyed, the warmer horn lines and gleaming keys of ‘These Morning’ coat Julia Holter’s cooing vocals with a comforting embrace, the hazy and composed grooves paving the curious joys of ‘Something in the Room She Moves’ and especially ‘Spinning’ get even more amplified through the presence of hooks that Julia Holter’s buoyant vocals can pull off exceptionally, the reverb-soaked ‘Evening Mood’ where the lunar chillness wafts all over the synths, hushed vocals, and tempered percussions, the expansive ambiance of ‘Ocean’ where the waves of layered synth and horn melodies maneuver across that watery expanse, and the half and half structured composition of ‘Talking to the Whisper’ where the lilting vocals and the frenetic instrumental passages of the first half parts off for the striking instrumental melodies of the second half just swirl upwards, echoing the whispers up to the heavenly rift. These moments are all beautiful, there are some parts where the spareness across the lowkey quaintness of ‘Materia’, the shambling vocal harmonies of ‘Meyou’ don’t work magnificently, and the muted waft motion of ‘Who Brings Me’ closes the album in a fragile way, or how ‘Sun Girl’ and its segmented melodic structure somehow kills the repetitive hypnotism of its very tune.
It is through the overall conceptual framework that paved its way to the overall compositions and how the melodies tend to maneuver elsewhere, where the sense of playfulness was inspired by Julia Holter’s birth of her first daughter that also managed to crystallize the aspects of love explored within this album. Diving deep into its sonorous flexibility and dimensionality as the writing frames love’s chaotic and passionate aspects into a piece of experience that’s filled with awe, where the very presence of love within Julia’s life is magnetic and expansive. A factor that’s not just represented through the album cover where the artwork painted by Christina Quarles - Julia Holter’s childhood friend - questions whether or not the figures are fighting against each other or are impassioned with one another, but it’s also shown through the prominent metaphors of the sun and the moon, effectively exploring the scale of that love and all of its beauty.
As a whole, while it might not end up as one of Julia Holter’s ecstatic projects, it still reaches magnificent peaks due to how the sense of exploration of its abstract concept works so much more than what she has tried to do in ‘Aviary’. Some of that comes to the leaner tightness with the balance of composed melodies and atmospheric ambiance that shines much more, the conceptual exploration of love and beauty is done with a playful, joyous charm, and the rays of sunny, trilling instrumental tones and textures all across the project imparts a comfy vibe that just makes every listen to this album end up as a moving experience. The malleable feelings of love never stay idly, because just like what the album title implies, it keeps moving all around, revealing its various sides whenever they’re shown to you.
Favorite Tracks: ‘These Morning’, ‘Something in the Room She Moves’, ‘Spinning’, ‘Ocean’, ‘Evening Mood’, ‘Talking to the Whisper’
Least Favorite Track: ‘Materia’