I love everything about the city. But not just the city I live in (that being New York), but the "city" itself. The mystery, the beauty of any city. I can wander around Brooklyn forever, but I could do the same thing in Montréal or Edinburgh. I love seeing the lights in the distance, from across the East River, of the Manhattan skyline. I love the rain in cities. I love the snow in cities. The people, where they can be better, are all unique. There's a difference between those who live in a city and those who live in the suburbs. I wouldn't be able to live in the suburbs. I don't want to know all my neighbors! I want mystery maintained throughout my life.
Julia Holter's third, and mesmerizing album, Loud City Song, seems to capture all these feelings in it's forty five-minute duration. It's an ode to the beauty, to the mystery, the rhythm of walking by the buildings, all shot through a concept inspired by the 1958 MGM musical, Gigi (which is based off the 1944 French novella by Colette).
The past Julia Holter albums have used literature and other art forms as inspiration (2011's Tragedy was based off Euripides' Hippolytus and 2012's Ekstasis drew from Virginia Woolf and Heidegger). But despite these cited influences, both those albums lacked a unifying theme, or, a concept. Holter even confessed that Ekstasis' songs were all made at different times, without the idea of an album in mind. But, Loud City Song was made in an actual studio, and it holds a much more cohesive and uniform set of songs.
And that's why Loud City Song is the first record of Holter's that I've actually enjoyed after multiple listens. It's a hypnotic listen and it belongs in the ranks of the best of 2013, including Phosphorescent's battered alt-country opus, Muchacho and ex-Yuck frontman Daniel Blumberg's heady, yet personal, experimental trip into 90's indie rock, as Hebronix on Unreal.
If that isn't enough, she even has a pair of tracks, "Maxim's I" and "Maxim's II", named after the club that the characters of Gigi visit at one point. Both the tracks carry a sinister and creepy air around them, as the scene from the film does. In the film, the patrons all stand and whisper a chant when someone walks in ("isn't she a mess?", "isn't she a sight?"). Holter sings from the point of view of one of the characters being subjected to whispered insults, singing, "tonight the birds are watching me, do they have more important things to do... into Maxim's we will see them walk, will they eat a piece of cheese or will they talk?"
On the opener, "World", Holter sings from the point of view of someone who sounds as if they're living out an Audrey Hepburn film. "I play a game of tennis", she sings, "a singer with her eyes closed, a singer on the fifth floor?" Later in the song, Holter may or may not elude to being the singer, leading to an even greater sense of mystery shrouding the album.
One of the record's best aspects is the live studio setting, instead of Holter's bedroom. There's not a single electric guitar on the album, instead, Holter's backed by piano, trombone, strings, percussion and saxophone (is 2013 the year of the saxophone in indie music? From the strangled one on Dirty Beach's "Landscapes in the Mist", to the dabbles throughout King Krule's 6 Feet Beneath the Moon to the underlying tenor on Mikal Cronin's "Turn Away"?) On album highlight, "Horns Surrounding Me", Holter is surrounded by a pounding brass section, almost giving her a Kate Bush/Björk feel. It's another menacing track, starting off with the sound of footsteps, and Holter's heavy breathing, as if she's being chased. On "In the Green Wild", Holter's backed by an elegant upright bass and an underscoring saxophone.
However, the songs with minimal instrumentation, with just Holter sitting at her piano prove to be the album's most beautiful moments. On "He's Running Through My Eyes", a beautiful piano ballad, Holter questions whether her lover of the Winter, will remember her through the Summer. But it's the album's centerpiece, a cover of Barbra Lewis' "Hello Stranger", where Holter's music is at it's most beautiful and elegant. Instead of an organ and the Dells backing her, Holter uses a swelling string section and modulated synth chords, which grow louder as the song progresses, working as a crescendo. Holter offers the most heartbreaking sentiment of the whole album, singing "hello stranger / it seems so good to see you back again... if you're not gonna stay / please don't treat me like you did before / because I still love you so".
The day I got Loud City Song, I listened to it straight through, and then went out to dinner. I went to Bar Bruno, a small French/Spanish fusion restaurant on the corner of Union and Henry. I set outside, at a small table, across from a bakery and pizzeria. At once, I felt as if I was living out the vision of Loud City Song, as I watched men and women all dressed up, getting out of taxis, and going into the restaurant, all with a mystery of their own. "There's a flavor to the sound of walking that no one's noticed before", Holter sings on "In the Green Wild", was a line that kept going through my head while sitting there (I was also constantly humming the saxophone solo from the end of "This Is a True Heart"). I walk through the city all the time, and that line always seems to work it's way into my head. There's the rhythm of the city, this concept that's so difficult to grasp. Loud City Song works as an ode to the city, the mystery, the fear, the love, the beauty and everything else the city entails. This is the city's song.
Julia Holter - Loud City Song
8/10
Recommended Tracks - "Maxim's I", "Horns Surrounding Me", "Hello Stranger", "He's Running Through My Eyes", "This Is a True Heart"
