- Across the four studio albums she has put out to date, Julia Holter has undergone an intriguing transition from her ambient-focused debut album, Tragedy, to the more accessible art pop of her last record, Have You in My Wilderness. The key trend that has remained throughout is that she has never been one to shrink from ambition; rather she's consistently unafraid to experiment and do away with predictable structures.
Her fifth studio album, Aviary, is her most expansive art pop effort yet. At ninety-minutes length, the album is an exhausting, yet rewarding slog, which Holter describes as a journey, to find your sense of identity amidst all the discordant internal and external babble we face every day.
Opening track, Turn the Light On, invites you into the album with an intensely textured and cacophonous slew of strings, horns and waves of percussion. Then the urgency of the instrumentals is complemented by dramatically ranged vocals that are reminiscent of Björk. The track gives you an idea of exactly what to expect from this album: anything and everything.
This expectation rings true in moments like the four-minute droning bagpipe section of Everyday Is an Emergency, and the song Voce Simul where some of Holter’s vocal effects sound like really raw Stockhausen sampling. This startling diversity of sounds is also on display in tracks like Les Jeux To You. The song effortlessly floats from a delicate and sad keyboard opening, to an infectiously catchy pop section in the middle, to closing synths that wouldn’t have been out-of-place in Blade Runner.
Meanwhile cuts like Whether deprive themselves of almost all structure. In fact, much of this record is so structureless that on repeat listens it remains near-impossible to predict where the album will take you next.
It also reinforces two of Holter’s great strengths: pacing and climaxes. She understands when to allow the listener a break, which is critical in maintaining interest and enthusiasm over ninety minutes. It’s lucky too, because moments like the subtle, yet beautiful glitchy keyboard tones in Another Dream deserve your full attention. With respect to climaxes, lead single I Shall Love 2 eases you in before building to a breathtaking peak to close out the track.
There is so much to be said about this album, but with its length and intense expansiveness, it will take a long time to truly process. It seems like Holter wanted to release a project that the listener would really have to grapple with, so in that regard, she’s unquestionably been successful. With repeat listens, the album only seems to become more and more rewarding so I'm going to take the risk and give it all the time it demands.
- Jack Jones.