Julia Holter “Maxim’s I”

08 Aug 2013 — Andrew Wagner

“Maxim’s I” is the latest single to be released from Julia Holter’s forthcoming album, Loud City Song. Previous singles “World” and “In the Green Wild”, with their fuller and cleaner orchestral sound, felt light-years away from the densely textured and intimate soundscapes of Holter’s masterful LPs, Tragedy and Ekstasis. “Maxim’s I”, however, serves as a bridge between past and present, its lush and sprawling composition recalling Tragedy’s delicate and powerful “Finale”. The apparent “heart” of Loud City Song, “Maxim’s I” has an undeniable dreamy quality to it. The near-ambient background, coupled with Holter’s slowly unraveling vocals, produces a sense of catharsis. Any prettiness, however, is undercut by Holter’s characteristically oblique lyrics, which hint at something darker: “Say it to my face if you want to be starting something.”

Stream “Maxim’s I” below. Loud City Song is available August 20th through Domino Records.