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Julia Holter: Something in the Room She Moves review – the best track is the simplest


Found sounds and touches of jazz enliven the American singer-songwriter’s woozy evocation of being present in changing times

Celebrated LA-based composer Julia Holter ’s last outing, 2018’s 90-minute Aviary, tried to reproduce the cognitive dissonance of living in recent times, harnessing medieval Occitan, bagpipes and a polyphony of other instruments to capture the restlessness of the mind. The pandemic, new motherhood and the death of her young nephew are the contexts for this new work, which remixes a Beatles title to emphasise female agency. But here, the melodics are blithe and woozy, with Sun Girl recalling the mantric, 21st-century psychedelia of Animal Collective, and Spinning combining hydraulic beats and jazz flute with a chorus that tries but fails to nail down the ineffable.

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