Holter has released high quality music in the past, with songs like the hauntingly bleak and string filled “World” being a highlight off of her last LP, Loud City Song, which was released in 2013. However, with Have You In My Wilderness, the singer/songwriter seems to have taken it up another level. Holter’s latest record features great string arrangements, graceful piano playing and a tasteful use of just the right amount of echo on the primary and background vocals.
The first draw to this music is her voice - Holter’s voice is light and gorgeous, but what really enhances it is the way she manipulates it. This is the main strength of “Silhouette”, one of the standout tracks of the record. As the song reaches its end, the different tracks of her voice mesh together and work with a fine string section to create a stunning climax to the tune. “Betsy on the Roof”, is another song that builds brilliantly here. The song starts off stringless, with the focus on Holter and her piano, then gradually builds - ending with her singing passionately over background vocals and beautiful strings which rise with her voice.
What makes Have You In My Wilderness such a well balanced and accomplished piece of work is how it seems to often flirt between more conventional pop vibes, like on tracks like "Sea Calls Me Home" and "Feel You", which have extremely catchy courses and are relatively simple musically, and the relatively experimental, which can be heard on "Vasquez". "Vasquez" is psychedelic and jazzy at the same time, the keys create an extremely trippy, searching atmosphere, making it one of the standout tracks of the album. Another album highlight is “How Long?", which has the string arrangements as the main driving force. The strings set a dreary backdrop for Holter's verses and give "How Long?" an extremely melancholy, but hypnotic, vibe.
The songs of this record, though lyrically almost never direct, evoke all types of different emotions. The fact that Holter is not direct leaves her songs open for a good amount of interpretation, so there should be no surprise if one listener gets a completely different idea from another. For example, "Everytime Boots" may come off as extremely adventurous ("Can you bring me a fresher perspective please?/May I be a prouder conqueror/Just bathing in the light?"), whereas a tune like "Night Song", driven by the constant staccato of the strings section, manages to feel timid and confrontational at the same time ("I run from you/Then walk back to/You, who I don't know/I'm sniffing for a light"). The album closes with "Have You In My Wilderness", where Holter seems to be in the mind of a lover ("Lady of gold, you would fit beautiful in my wilderness/Oh, in your waters I've dropped anchor"), who may be losing the one he or she longs for ("Tell me, why do I feel you running away?"). On this song, and all throughout Have You In My Wilderness, Holter creates a dreamy, ethereal atmosphere that makes it extremely hard not to press the replay button.
