Julia Holter

Blurring the lines between sighing art-pop and soaring classical, Julia Holter’s albums are often grand in scope yet impressively detailed. Born in Milwaukee in 1984, she earned a degree in composition before independently releasing a string of records in the late 2000s. Holter soon found a growing fanbase for her mercurial, often conceptual work, which drew equal inspiration from poems, films, Greek tragedy, and other far-flung artistic output. Her surreally gorgeous 2015 album Have You in My Wilderness was also her most accessible to date, giving her whimsical voice more attention while still stoking dreamy flashbacks to pop outsiders like Scott Walker and Van Dyke Parks. Holter’s 2018 double album Aviary proved even more ambitious, frequently shifting into excited masses of voices and instrumentation at a moment’s notice. Since then, Holter has branched into scoring films as well, including 2020’s acclaimed drama Never Rarely Sometimes Always.