“Wishful Thinking” – Julia-Sophie

Fingertips

“Wishful Thinking” – Julia-Sophie

I’m fascinated by an offbeat bit of synthesized percussion that you can hear in “Wishful Thinking” if you stop to listen for it. The song itself starts with a smooth, propulsive beat, possessing the vibe of a calming burble. Then, at 0:31, a sound, somewhere (sort of) between a scratch and a cymbal choke, starts up and goes on to hit at a regular interval that does not–interestingly; weirdly–align with the song’s beat. (When I called it “offbeat” I meant that literally.) It’s a background sound, easy not to notice consciously. But its gentle if determined persistence to mark out an unrelated beat adds texture and mystery to a song that initially presents as a smooth ride. It also sets up later sections of the song when most of the instrumentation is stripped away; the first time we hear this, at 1:07, that offbeat percussion sound comes to the forefront, and here it subtly regularizes, somehow, momentarily, into the beat of the song. This is the kind of thing that I can end up delighted by. You?

Meanwhile, floating above everything is Julia-Sophie’s breath-filled voice, which entices not merely in its variegated lead role, which includes some spoken interludes, but in the differing ways she accompanies herself. I especially like how some of her vocals, both in lead and backing iterations, appear to meld into synthesizer washes, which happens throughout the song–yet another subtle touch that requires active listening to notice. But–this is an ongoing point I’ve been making here for 20-plus years–even if not registering consciously, subtle production and/or compositional features contribute to a song’s disposition and, ultimately, its allure (or lack thereof). When all is said and done, it’s what I’ve been here all these years trying to discern–not just to say “I like this” but “Let’s figure out why I like this.”

The half-British, half-French singer/songwriter Julia-Sophie Walker has a recording history dating back to the mid-2000s, when she fronted the Oxford, UK-based band Little Fish. She was known as Juju Heslop at the time. She eventually married bandmate Ben Walker, and they went on to form the electro-pop band Candy Says, at which point she was using the name Julia Walker. After 2019, Julia-Sophie adopted her full birth name as her stage name and began a solo career, with a more experimental brand of electronic pop. “Wishful Thinking” is a track from her latest release, the full-length album Forgive Too Slow, which comes out tomorrow. Check out all her solo work on Bandcamp.