Pitchfork/Jayson Greene reviewed our debut “To be close to you” and gave us probably the most wonderful review i’ve ever read about any music i’ve been part of.
thanks everyone who’s supported us, this is a very cool thing for me just as someone who has read pitchfork pretty much religiously since i was in highschool. i still love the site & it’d be an honor even to get a bad review on it, so this is a really great surprise.
The sweetly unassuming kind of home-made pop music that Julia Brown make is easily overlooked when it is untethered from its home base; so much of indie-pop’s magic resides in its locality, and in the connections forged by flyers, 7-inches, and shows. In their Baltimore stomping grounds, Julia Brown seem like they’re a big deal. In the great sea of the internet, where one small bauble after another can be plucked and cast back just as quickly, this stuff can have a harder time standing apart. But To Be Close to You rewards any undivided attention you are willing to give it. Ray’s gift is as substantial as his touch is light, and at its best To Be Close to You hearkens back to the spirit of some of the broken-hearted, scrofulous sweeties of the Pacific Northwest during the 90s: Elliott Smith, for instance, or Modest Mouse during their K Records years. Ray indicated recently that he had hit the limits of lo-fi recording techniques, and was looking to expand outward: His vision seems big enough to accomodate whatever canvas he works on next.