Law Holt - City

Does the state of pop music invoke despair?  Do you tire of homogenized songs constructed by crews of beat makers, melody draftsmen, hook specialists and lyric consultants, sung by people who actually seem to be trying to sound like the last person who had a hit?  Yeah, it drives us crazy too.  But there is hope out there, and we find it in the person of Law Holt.  Holt emerged from the Edinburgh underground pop scene that also produced Young Fathers, with whom she has collaborated.  After promising early recordings, Holt took time off to recover from serious injuries suffered in a random attack.  Having sufficiently recovered to write and record, she has unleashed her debut LP, City, via the Soulpunk label.

Holt's take on pop is versatile.  Sunshine pop like "Summer's Coming" and "Love Drive Through" are balanced with intriguing songs featuring more adventuresome arrangements such as static, woozy filters, underwater effects, jittery percussion and other bells and whistles.  It is an album of layers and surprises -- layers of beats, layers of effects, layers of emotions.  But the execution is so disciplined that none of it seems cluttered.  It must be said that one of our favorite things about Ms. Holt is that she is unafraid of packing her music with an unapologetic bite, and those well placed chomps coupled with her perfect pop sensibilities make her one of the more exciting artists making music these days.

City is direct, even blunt, artistic expression that remembers to entertain.  A few streams are below, and you can stream the entire album at the Bandcamp link.








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