Welcome to pillbugm.blog

Something in the Room She Moves is American musician Julia Holter’s sixth studio album. Despite her extensive body of work, this is unfortunately my first rodeo with her music (which I unfortunately find myself saying quite often). I’m sure that if I were more familiar with her work I might be less surprised, but I left this album really impressed with what I heard.

The best way to describe this album is transcendental. This album feels like the sonic album of whatever people mean when they say the word ‘tantric’. I don’t know if I’ve ever expressed this preference before, but I really enjoy music that feels kinetic or dynamic – a la Kate Bush’s entire discography – and this album is the embodiment of fluidity with different sonic textures melting into each other to create this warm, spiritual, and ambient atmosphere. Holter also heavily utilizes flutes within the album, and I really appreciate this touch as flutes just add this sense of other-worldliness for me.

Something in the Room She Moves is quite a short album, so admittedly I don’t have that much to say except that I do recommend you listen to it. That being said, Holter’s style is fairly non-mainstream, in that I’ve seen some people draw comparisons with Björk. This is a fair comparison – Holter’s unique vocal inflections and willingness to experiment, especially on tracks like “Meyou“, are indeed comparable to Björk’s, even though I admittedly prefer Holter’s vocals over Björk’s (which is a matter of personal preference). That is to say that it might take a bit of time to get used to Holter’s method of presentation, but I think the present record offers a lot, musically speaking, for listeners to chew on.

Best Track(s): “Something in the Room She Moves”, “Spinning”, “Evening Mood”

Rating: 8.0/10