Jolie Holland has always embodied everything weird and wonderful in the history of American music, but Wine Dark Sea takes it to a new level. Raw and unrestrained, bristling with kinetic energy, Wine Dark Sea is unlike anything she’s ever recorded, but is also the purest and most assured evocation of Holland’s vision to date.
The album features symphonic swaths of noisy electric guitars and percolating polyrhythms supporting some of the most powerful vocal performances of Holland’s career. This combined with some of her most direct and memorable songs make Wine Dark Sea her most joyful and fully realized work to date.