Monday, December 17, 2012
Music The 20 Best Albums of 2012
Posted by Mike Conklin, Lauren Beck and Jeff Klingman on Mon, Dec 17, 2012 at 5:00 AM
Page 10 of 13
4. Julia Holter — Ekstasis
Lo-fi, in its current laptop-assisted ubiquity, has an unfortunate tendency to sabotage truly talented singers, make them sound cruddier than they could. As heavily as she layers herself in GarageBand stacks, as willfully as she blurs the edges of her own talent, L.A.’s Julia Holter could easily have met that fate. But the compositional skill of her second record climbs straight past. She Xeroxes herself into a weirdly floral serenity, makes pleasing indie-pop into an ornate puzzle. Crucially, Ekstasis is lofty. It’s more plausible emerging from the mists of Delphi than showing up on somebody’s Tumblr at 2 A.M.
Key Track: "In the Same Room"
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