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Baker's Dozen

Moulding Voices: Julia Holter's Favourite Albums
Gary Kaill , September 23rd, 2015 09:22

From a girl group compilation heard in childhood to more recently discovered singer-songwriters and jazz via a medieval mass, the LA composer talks Gary Kaill through some key albums in her record collection

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Joni Mitchell - Court And Spark
I listened to Joni so much when I was like 15, and later also. Is this one my favourite? I don't know. Probably. I love For The Roses and I love The Hissing Of Summer Lawns. But Court And Spark is also a little… rock? Not rock, but it's very '70s. When I first heard it, it sounded grossly '70s in an uncool way. When I was in high school, it was a new sound for me and for a while it almost wasn't something I would be comfortable saying that I was into. It was folky vibes and '60s stuff that was cool.

It's slightly jazzy, slightly funky and those sounds began to actually be very exciting for me despite what everyone else might have thought. The songs are very relatable for someone of that age, even though they were written by an older person. You take a song like 'People's Parties' and the psychologies and the stories within the songs: it's fascinating to me.