In early 2020, while Julia Holter worked on a relatively swift follow-up to her 2018 opus, Aviary, two complications arose. The first, a pandemic, you know all about; the second, a lockdown pregnancy—well, just imagine. The shift flung this once prolific singer-songwriter into a period of stops and starts. She stopped performing, of course, and mostly stopped writing songs; perhaps most gravely of all, she stopped reading medieval texts. She started preparing for motherhood, then stopped preparing—motherhood was here! When she finally started recording, exhausted, things often went awry: She would stop singing and start yawning, occasionally dozing at the controls. This was no reflection of the music, though it is true that Something in the Room She Moves dispenses with her usual song and dance, distilling its vexed creation into one long, languorous thought. Stop talking, it suggests, and start listening.
Tracklist:
Sun Girl
These Morning
Something in the Room She Moves
Materia
Meyou
Spinning
Ocean
Evening Mood
Talking to the Whisper
Who Brings Me