Artist:     Julia Othmer

Album:     Sound

Label:     Lunar Cadre

Release Date:     3.30.2018

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Even in its quietest moments, storms of powerful emotions always seem to be brewing on Sound, the spellbinding and stylish second album from singer/songwriter Julia Othmer. Shelter is found in its spacious environs, often lushly furnished with a rich array of textures, transcendent melodies, varied instrumentation and full vocals that come in overlapping waves.

As Othmer’s collaborator, James Lundie has his fingerprints all over Sound, having helped design its stunningly sophisticated and dramatic architecture. His nuanced work as producer/composer on this record deserves heaps of praise, as does Othmer’s strong, expressive vocals and eloquent, often luxurious, piano stylings. She does get top billing after all.

Together, they wring every bit of sadness and yearning out of the bruised ballad “Homeward,” having set an ominous tone of fear and foreboding in an unnerving “Coming for Me Now” and a noir-like, moonlit atmosphere in “Purple and Gray,” a dreamy, poetic meditation on loss and grief that unfolds beautifully. And while the inspirational and triumphant “Never Too Far” – with its big hooks – and the exuberant “Frickin’ Awesome” reveal a sense of rock-oriented optimism and healing, the surging “Hungry Days (Make Me Feel)” is fiercely defiant and visceral, its streaming guitars caked with fuzzy distortion.

The dark aesthetics and shifting dynamics of Sound make it a record that reaches for the sky, while at the same time manufacturing scenes of grounded isolation and emptiness. A track like “Whether” is representative of Sound as a whole, making a cabaret out of swirling vocals and thick carpets of sumptuous piano. Sound sounds so good.

—Peter Lindblad