鈥淕ood Thing We Stayed鈥� by Julia Wolf (BMG)
Julia Wolf used to write her goals in invisible ink on her bedroom walls. The self-described shy girl wasn鈥檛 ready to reveal her ambition, even to her family.
In her debut for BMG 鈥淕ood Thing We Stayed,鈥� the alt-pop performer is ready to come out of the shadows with a blend of darkness, self-discovery and humor. She displays world-slaying potential on singles such as 鈥淗ot Killer鈥� and 鈥淕et Off My鈥� but it is in the quieter moments, when her vocals and lyrics take center stage, that she emerges as an artist to watch.
Though Wolf is a major-label newcomer, she boasts a large online audience through YouTube videos that she created and uploaded from home.
After COVID restrictions eased, she honed her lyrical skills and presence through open-mic nights in New York City, and the performance experience has served her well. Most lyrics are delivered over a hip-hop beat, but her lilt contains surprising echoes of earlier folk-influenced singers such as Tracy Chapman and even Judy Collins.
One of Wolf鈥檚 uploaded live performances gained the attention of writer/producer Jackson Foote (Zara Larsson, Demi Lovato, Cheat Codes). Their collaboration plays to her strengths 鈥� together they keep the instrumentation spare and the songs short and punchy.
The result is a tight-knit collection of musical sketches of various aspects of youth: discovery, disappointment, trauma and growth. In the final moments of the last song, 鈥淩ookie of the Year,鈥� Wolf reveals some snippets of her training in classical piano, and this may well provide a glimpse of broader range to come in her future work.
With her January album release and a scheduled tour, Wolf is positioned in 2023 to expand well beyond the audience she built from home with a keyboard and camera. As for realizing her once-secret ambition, Wolf describes herself as a Slytherin, so perhaps it was only a matter of time.
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https://apnews.com/hub/music-reviews
Jim Pollock, The Associated Press
