Active as half of synth/dream pop duo
Mint Julep
since the 2000s,
Hollie Kenniff
began releasing solo material in 2019. Departing from the group's hook-heavy, often danceable pop songs, her own music is lush, hazy, and a bit nostalgic, blending ambient synths and chiming guitar melodies with wordless, textural vocals. It might be convenient to file her albums under ambient, but even without lyrics, her compositions are songs as much as soundscapes, and the melodies often recall modern classical and the dreamy side of indie and post-rock.
We All Have Places That We Miss
is her third full-length, and its songs reflect on lost moments, nature scenes, passed relatives, and locations that only exist as memories now. She wrote a significant portion of the album while dealing with chronic insomnia due to anemia, so there's a therapeutic element to it as well. "Shifting Winds" opens the record with vast, billowing guitars and gently floating vocals, while the piano-driven "Salient" feels more down-to-earth and poignant. The most overtly retro song on the album, "Momentary," has robotic Berlin School-inspired sequencers, which sound warm, playful, and dazzling. "No End to the Sea" is a rich, immersive guitar meditation bringing to mind
Robin Guthrie
's solo work. "Carve the Ruins" is the record's most tense moment, due to its slow, soft kick drum, which sounds more like footsteps than percussion. A few tracks feature
Goldmund
(
Hollie
's bandmate and husband,
Keith Kenniff
), and they range from the intimate yet alien "Eunoia" to the glowing "Remembered Words," which brings the set to a stirring close with its stark, sentimental piano melody. On
,
Kenniff
glances at the past from several different viewpoints in order to gracefully find the strength to move forward. ~ Paul Simpson