Julia Holter - Don't Make Me Over

I am a huge fan of what Julia Holter's been up to.  Last year's Maxim's II was clever, complicated, and actually pretty accessible given what it was.

Don't Make Me Over immediately reminded me of Laura Mvula's Make Me Lovely.  The two tracks have a few similarities: they both bloom into a huge, beautiful swell, and they're centered on some potential lover accepting them for their faults. 

What I find alluring to Holter's take on this theme is the difference between where her track starts, stylistically, to where she leaves us.  The first minute or so is, frankly, bleak.  It's just Holter and an upright bass, drums later: "Don't make me over, now that I'd do anything for you . . . I'm begging you, don't make me over, now that I can't make it without you"

This is a little different from Mvula's, "I don't need love to rescue me."  Make Me Lovely seemed to be telling us that Mvula just wasn't planning on being simplified for herself or anyone.  Ironically, the track was absolutely gorgeous.

Holter is saying the exact opposite.  I've given you my heart, "now that you've got me at your command, accept me for what I am."  

Well that's kinda sad, Julia Holter.  But maybe that vulnerability is a little more honest.  I think plenty of people can relate to the idea of finding someone and wanting nothing more than for them to just like you as you are.  Put another way, "I hope I am enough, because this is all I am!" 

By the end of the track, though, we've come from her begging, to her seeming to stand up and declare, "Accept me for who I am, accept me for the things that I do."

Whereas I envision Mvula smiling, alone, at the sunset on some boat of hers in Greece (I have a vivid imagination) as she sings her final line, Holter's headed out on a date, but ready to be 100% Julia Holter.  A little understated, but completely lovely in her own Julia Holter way.