Julia Holter, Have You in My Wilderness - album review

Download: Feel You; Silhouette; Sea Calls Me Home

On Have You In My Wilderness, Julia Holter corrals the wayward art-song inclinations of previous releases into something more recognisably pop, with the engagingly serpentine vocal melodies of songs like “Feel You” and “Silhouette” set to shifting matrixes of strings, organ, harpsichord, sundry ambient noises, and drums that sometimes seem determined to take the more picturesque route.

On the more structured pieces like “Sea Calls Me Home”, there’s a charming fragrance of Sixties psychedelic soft-rock, as multi-layered saxes chase plodding tack piano, and Holter faces the prospect of drowning with insouciant whistling; while the more meandering montage of strings, keys and rattling chains lends an unsettling tone to “Lucette Stranded on the Island”.

There’s prodigious ambition here, and moments of great pleasure.