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Photo: Sophia Perras

When we last spoke to dee holt in April of this year, she mentioned a departure from her “candy pop” sonic roots into a “darker and bolder space.” The aim was to embark on an experimental project that could unlock “less predictable” sonic configurations, building a unique musical proposition. Her third EP, loving in the dark, provides an examination of that boisterous-luminous voyage that reaches a new, multi-layered career apex.

The journey has a few stops, with each track providing a unique station infrastructure, sometimes with R&B foundations, other times marbled with bright electronic and alternative elements, always producing intentional dark pop architectonics that mesmerize. While one may be tempted to say that the genre is only in vogue, holt ensures the trek she takes listeners on is ever-lasting and profoundly substantial.

First on the schedule is the Daniel James-stamped track “leaving alone,” which sees holt converging on elements from the pop renaissance of the 2010s and more advanced, dynamic 2024 soundscapes. James (Haley Williams, Kacey Musgraves), as producer on the track, leaves a mark, but it is holt’s balmy vocal tone, navigating dense melodies and a shapely beat, that gives life to the song’s layered, retro hooks.

The effect is compounded in “tunnel vision,” a track holt co-wrote with pop contemporary Brigetta. Produced by A.B. Eastwood (Kodak Black, Denzel Curry), the song’s heartbeat rhythm sits beneath a flashing chorus that puts all the above-mentioned elements into play two-fold. The song, which details “the first steps in a relationship,” displays the butterflies associated with the theme in its very skeletal sonic structure. 

Where “pick up your shoes” is a musical sprint led by a husky bassline, “make a move” is a groovy strutter that feels like the EP’s climax moment, arriving at the crest of a new and more mature sound for dee holt. “Yeah I'll make a move / Something’s got me lately / Got nothing to lose” is the leap, expressed in lyrics, that in loving in the dark pays off and further carves a destination for holt among pop’s rising stars, of past and present.

It all began with holt singing in front of her parents, and her boyfriend’s parents too, facing a wall, nerve-wracked. It was the support of her closest family and friends, and a faithful musical partnership with Montreal producer Benjamin Nadeau, that set her on a path toward success and stardom. Long torn down are the walls, and in the rear view the uncertain times, leaving only a bountiful career ahead and deep talent to explore.

If the closing track, “fool’s gold,” is lush storytelling, driven by the dynamics of a manipulative relationship and springy electric guitar strums, then this Montreal-born singer and songwriter provides us an intriguing chapter that completes an enthralling work of art born of belief. Once self-underestimated, encouraged by loved ones, dee holt has reached her destiny with a ticket for further journeys in hand.

Listen to loving in the dark below: