Have You in My Wilderness

Julia Holter - Have You in My Wilderness
Critic Score
Based on 37 reviews
2015 Ratings: #6 / 1021
Year End Rank: #9
User Score
2015 Rank: #16
Liked by 223 people
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CRITIC REVIEWS

100
Mojo
This is not a record that wants or needs to be solved, but the clues and traces it leaves behind are so compelling it's difficult to let it alone.
100
The Arts Desk
Sometimes it's vaudevillian, while at others it seems to float free above a dream city almost like an ambient record, but always the sonic mood and the songcraft are inseparable.
100
The Skinny

Uninhibited, focused and majestically crafted, she’s simply never sounded more vital.

100
The Guardian
The result is a genuinely exceptional and entrancing album, opaque but effective, filled with beautiful, skewed songs, unconventional without ever feeling precious or affected.
100
AllMusic

While it's tempting to say Have You in My Wilderness is her most personal music yet, it might be more accurate to say that it's her most approachable: this time, her brilliance demands a lot from her listeners, but also meets them more than halfway.

100
musicOMH
This may well be Holter’s most accessible album to date, but it’s this very approachability that renders it all the more intriguing, drawing you in with open arms. Stately and serene, it’s a wilderness that begs to be inhabited for some time, a country you’ll be reluctant to leave.
100
The Telegraph

This is the kind of record you're happy to set spinning again and again.

90
PopMatters

The songs on Have You in My Wilderness move gently with few exception at the peaceful state of many ballads.

90
GIGsoup
A sense of tranquility engulfs the album, which is spared from the sometimes anxious and claustrophobic sound which appears on earlier offerings.
90
The Needle Drop
Julia Holter's latest record is one of the most heavenly albums I've heard in the past five years.
90
Under the Radar

Superlatives barely do the record's beauty or brilliance justice. Something this exquisite extends beyond words on a page or, frankly, sound in the ears. Have You In My Wilderness is meant to be experienced; it's meant to be felt. Only then will you understand just how special Julia Holter's creation truly is.

90
Uncut

With Have You In My Wilderness her songs feel brighter, more pop, yet they're also just as lush, as considered and as quietly experimental.

90
Clash
It’s hard to imagine anyone else ever recording these songs, so indelibly does Holter leave her mark.
90
Loud and Quiet

Rather than nodding respectfully at the artists of the past, Holter now fixes her stare inward, shining a torch on what makes her tick as a human being. The result is a much more honest and more personal collection.

90
Tiny Mix Tapes

Have You In My Wilderness is all about walking away and looking back, the content of desire and its form, the voice in search of clarifying itself.

90
Exclaim!

Have You In My Wilderness finds Holter narrowing her focus a little. In doing so, she gets the best of both worlds, showing off her ability to write warm and breezy pop music while maintaining the complexity, and perplexity, that made her so intriguing to begin with.

88
Sputnikmusic

Deciphering the message in her words relies on just how much time the listener is willing to devote to the album, but with music this brilliant, the task seems all the more alluring.

85
The Line of Best Fit
In a career that has been nothing short of innovative, this arguably marks a creative peak.
85
The 405
In all, Holter has made an album about blissful, hypnotic escape in many forms, and in listening to it and engaging with it, you'll be overwhelmed by these feelings too.
84
Resident Advisor

Even if Have You In My Wilderness is Holter's most accessible record to date, it's riddled with enough puzzles, lyrical twists and delicate refinement to remain intriguing listen after listen.

84
Pitchfork

For an artist who could sometimes seem forbidding or remote, Have You In My Wilderness feels humane,  and with each new release, it seems like a bit more of the personal is teased out of Holter's stately, high-concept approach.

83
Pretty Much Amazing

Have You in My Wilderness’ best quality is that it won’t let you down if you get up close and sit with it for a while.

83
Consequence of Sound

While still dreamlike, Have You in My Wilderness, Holter’s fourth album, is something clearly felt — the ocean spray on the warm breeze, the sun baking exposed limbs, a hand glancing across your skin before drifting away.

80
The Irish Times
With each song an epic journey packaged into four unpredictable minutes, Holter proves herself a songwriter who likes to keep her listeners guessing.
80
Record Collector

Wilderness is the kind of intimate, late-night album that fans of Holter’s work will find easy to cherish, and which should win her brand of hazy, blissful and often euphoric lullabies a whole new audience.

80
FLOOD Magazine

With Have You in My Wilderness, Holter’s musical worlds continue to engross.

80
Q Magazine
An album that repeatedly pulls you back in to try and decipher its charms.
80
God Is in the TV

With the change in musical temperature on Have You In My Wilderness, Julia Holter’s collection is now suitable for all seasons, rather than just the cold and sheltered moments of winter.

80
Crack Magazine

Have You in My Wilderness sees her positively gliding towards accessibility; she sacrifices none of her experimental credentials, but demonstrates no fear of allowing her sound to evolve either.

80
NOW Magazine

Her new one ... is about matters of the heart, and its stunning textures come in part from the 30-year-old singer/songwriter’s ensemble of talented L.A. musicians.

80
DIY
Julia Holter always stood out as a left-field crafter of melody; this album establishes her as a unique lyric voice, too.
80
NME

Album number four from this Los Angeles native is defined by its sense of cinematic grandeur and romantic narrative.

80
Drowned in Sound
Holter’s songs are grand, cinematic experiences, akin to entering a nebulous, shimmering other-world.
70
Spectrum Culture

Have You In My Wilderness feels less like a wilderness and more like a stately Roman ruin, gorgeous but cold and untouchable. The pop-oriented material might gain Holter a few new fans, and expect “Feel You” to appear on some indie-oriented Spotify playlists.

70
Rolling Stone
All the world's indeed a stage on this enchanting fifth LP, the latest in the California singer-composer's evolution from avant-electronic vocal explorer towards a lush semi-pop middle-ground that's theatrical, liturgical and shoe-gazing.
60
The Independent
There’s prodigious ambition here, and moments of great pleasure.
barcooper
92

Five hours ago I didn't know who Julia Holter is, now I'm a stan.

So yeah I'm ashamed to admit that I had no idea who Julia Holter is until this very day, I stumbled upon this album quite randomly and the cover seemed intriguing to me so I gave it a listen. And holy fuck, this has to be one of the most underrated baroque pop albums from the last decade, despite its relatively high score.

This is Julia Holter's 7th studio album, released in 2015. Julia wasn't new to the music world at the ... read more

RakkSmells
90

For this review, I’m going to try and separate myself from the front page of the website, as I want more of my reviews to reflect my personal thoughts, not a mirrored edition of what the most liked review is. I’m guilty of this a lot.

Anyway, this album. Have You In My Wilderness. An intimate but heavenly experience lead by none other than Julia Holter. How did I experience this album?

By playing Minecraft. With shaders.

I don’t regret it one bit. I could care less about ... read more

WhatTheFunk
80

Julia sent me back to her strings... I passed out.

Dreampop... Like most of the styles born (or popular) in the 1980s, dreampop continues to be used by many musicians in the new millennium. The problem, as with other movements of the time, is that this kind of music depends so much on big production effects that the records created quickly became so similar that they were condemned to float softly with the rest of the style in a steamy soup whose originality is hard to discern, so meticulously ... read more

twigsxivan
87

This was so beautiful.
The first half is insanely amazing and pretty, her vocals are so sweet and the instrumentals are gorgeous.
I'll admit there's a moment in the middle of the album where two songs were not like the rest (kinda filler songs) but overall I loved this album, one of my best first listens of my 2024 so far.

Favorites:Feel You, Silhouette, Lucette Stranded On The Island, Night Song, Betsy On The Roof
Least Favorite: How Long?

sekedeluza
94

Im impressed, this project is such a magical experience. The production is on such a high level and the lyrics are stunning… idk why but this project gives me huge weyes blood vibes

favs: betsy on the roof, silhouette

least fav: vasquez

Felix_96
70

7/10

good

Fav tracks: Feel You, Silhouette, Sea Calls Me Home, Betsy on the Roof

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Added on: July 9, 2015