Loud City Song | Loppylugs

Submitted by Glyn Lewis on 4 February 2014 - 1:17pm

Glyn had to pick from MetaCritic’s Top 10 albums of the year 2013

Cover:

Artist:

Julia Holter

album-ID:

a_146

Nationality:

USA

Year:

2 013

Release-year:

0000

Num-of-tracks:

Track-listing:

World*Maxim's I*Horns Surrounding Me*In The Green Wild*Hello Stranger*Maxim's II*He's Running Through My Eyes*This Is A True Heart*City Appearing

Length-in-mins:

Nominator:

Bean

meeting-ID:

m_56

Now-num:

2 014

Spotify-URL:

2rbppUb6T63d41sk7dQDfL

Grooveshark-URL:

Loud+City+Song/9181184

Short-title:

loudCitySong

nominator-ID:

u_1

Meeting-date:

Tuesday, 1 April 2014

MusicBrainz-URL:

50c58427-cafb-4bd8-bdd7-f54edad59b63

Wikipedia-URL:

Loud_City_Song

Spotify-link-type:

album

Metacritic-URL:

loud-city-song/julia-holter

Discogs-URL:

Julia-Holter-Loud-City-Song/master/586743

Allmusic-URL:

loud-city-song-mw0002556419

rdio-URL:

Julia_Holter/album/Loud_City_Song/

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117

reviewers-IDs data

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78

reviewed by

Glyn Lewis

Even the regular customers have left early tonight

2-5-6-8

I initially found the gentle and subtle washes of the sound somewhat pale, the themes elusive and difficult to make out. But eventually the shapes of the compositions have come through and I've warmed to a lot of these.

The sound is slightly reminiscent in places of other acts, perhaps Laurie Anderson, the Cocteau Twins or Julee Cruise, but these are only very slight hints and she seems to have her own sound. And is accompanied by an able backing band that bring it all to life.

I am surprised by the panel's animosity towards her vocals. Singing exposed like this does require some ability to pull off, there are largely no affectations to her voice, if anything it is a bit anonymous, but certainly nothing to take offence to. She does do a bit of a faux Japanese type thing in the Maxims tracks but I must say I enjoyed that.

All in all a strong album with some really rather lovely passages.
65

reviewed by

Matthew Baker

HOLTER - who goes there?

6-8

A talent. Enjoyed her previous album more, but this one had its moments. Could mature into something pretty good.
64

reviewed by

Richard Norbury
38

reviewed by

Neil Hornsey

I'm sure this is all very eyebrow raising and beard scratching for Q Magazine readers, but I'm bored of abums that seem to be interesting for interesting's sake. The vocals irritate me and the tracks lack fluidity; simply unmemorable.