Have You in My Wilderness

Writing and composition

Unlike Holter's previous studio album, Loud City Song (2013), a concept album loosely inspired by the 1958 film, Gigi, Have You in My Wilderness is not linked by a unified narrative. Prior to the album's release, Holter noted: "It's more like Ekstasis than the last record. [...] For me it's easier to come up with this single story that ties everything together, so it was harder to do this record: to do something where I have to make up stories for every song."

Regarding the writing process for her lyrics, Holter noted, "I basically just write stream of consciousness to a certain extent, I let the song kind of go where it wants to go. I don't think that's a new idea, at all, but I think that maybe I do it to an extreme." Both "Sea Calls Me Home" and "Betsy on the Roof" were written years prior to recording and often performed during Holter's live performances. "Lucette Stranded on the Island" was influenced by Colette's novella, Chance Acquaintances, while novelist Christopher Isherwood's recurring fictional character, Sally Bowles, was an influence in writing "How Long?".

Holter cites Scott Walker's song, "Duchess", as a key influence on the album, noting: "Somehow that song captures what I was trying to do on a larger level: this warm, golden group of love songs. That was what I had in mind, [but] in the end I don't think it comes across."

Recording

The recording process for Have You in My Wilderness took much longer than initially expected: "It took a really long time. We had to record many times. It was frustrating. The last one was so easy to make, in a way, and this record was this troubled child. It was so hard." Holter credits producer Cole M. Greif-Neill with foregrounding her vocals on the album, noting "[He] really pushed me to let the vocals be in the forefront. He pushed me to really bring out the vocals because I tend to not do that. I usually like to hide my vocals behind the music."

Holter recorded the album with the idea of expanding upon her sound: "All of my projects are very different, in my mind, but this one's working in a tradition of 60s ballads. I really wanted to have this big sound, although it doesn't mean I'm going to make music that sounds like that again."

Critical reception

Have You in My Wilderness received widespread acclaim from critics. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream publications, the album has received an average score of 87, based on 28 reviews. Heather Phares of AllMusic said, "While it's tempting to say Have You in My Wilderness is her most personal music yet, it might be more accurate to say that it's her most approachable: this time, her brilliance demands a lot from her listeners, but also meets them more than halfway." Adam Kivel of Consequence of Sound said, "She doesn't convey specific messages or exhaustively detail narratives, but to listen to each song on Have You in My Wilderness is to inhabit a feeling in all of its pain and all of its glory." Cam Lindsay of Exclaim! said, "Have You in My Wilderness finds Holter narrowing her focus a little. In doing so, she gets the best of both worlds, showing off her ability to write warm and breezy pop music while maintaining the complexity, and perplexity, that made her so intriguing to begin with."

Alexis Petridis of The Guardian said, "The result is a genuinely exceptional and entrancing album, opaque but effective, filled with beautiful, skewed songs, unconventional without ever feeling precious or affected." Rob Mesure of musicOMH said, "This may well be Holter's most accessible album to date, but it's this very approachability that renders it all the more intriguing, drawing you in with open arms. Stately and serene, it's a wilderness that begs to be inhabited for some time, a country you'll be reluctant to leave." Mojo stated, "This is not a record that wants or needs to be solved, but the clues and traces it leaves behind are so compelling it's difficult to let it alone." NME stated, "An intense, emotional record."

Winston Cook-Wilson of Pitchfork said, "Have You in My Wilderness embraces the specific, rather than the eternal, and in her narrowed focus you can sense a palpable self-confidence and a hard-won precision." Q stated, "An album that repeatedly pulls you back in to try and decipher its charms." Will Hermes of Rolling Stone said, "All the world's indeed a stage on this enchanting fifth LP." Max Power of Tiny Mix Tapes said, "It's the subversion of the tyranny of the pop song and the aural manifestation of desire's drift, or trudge, wherever it goes. In the background, throughout, her voice annotates, in stunning polyphony, like Horn's watery associations, the unknowable trajectory that each song always already takes." Uncut stated, "With Have You in My Wilderness her songs feel brighter, more pop, yet they're also just as lush, as considered and as quietly experimental." Andy Gill of The Independent said, "There's prodigious ambition here, and moments of great pleasure."

Track listing

All tracks written by Julia Holter.