Sugaring a Strawberry, the sophomore record from Julia, Julia, is a study in coming undone-on purpose. Recorded at COMA, Julia Kugel's home studio, and mixed through a custom Flickenger clone, the album drifts in and out of clarity like memory itself. It's emotionally retrospective, creatively unvarnished, and deeply human. You can hear it in the hiss, the warmth, in the vocals so raw they're like an open window. These songs weren't engineered for perfection. They were built to breathe. Her long-time collaborator and husband, Scott Montoya, mixes it all so loosely that you can hear the air between tracks- a space that makes the music feel inhabited rather than recorded. The lyric "I will be your home" is like a vow that has already been kept again and again. Sugaring a Strawberry doesn't seek catharsis so much as stumbles into it. There's a quiet volatility to these songs like they might fall apart if you press too hard. It moves in shadow and softness, asking questions it doesn't answer.

• Genre: Pop
• Genre: POP
• Label: Suicide Squeeze
• Label: Suicide Squeeze