Grouper - Dragging A Dead Deer Up A Hill (Album Review)

 

Grouper - Dragging A Dead Deer Up A Hill

(2008)

My copy: 2013 reissue by Kranky.

Dragging A Dead Deer Up A Hill was a turning point of sorts for Liz Harris as her sound had matured to the point that a few tracks gained widespread attention for having more consumable and impressionable melodies. 

“Disengaged” stays depressive but is just slightly sweet, offering a new outlet for catharsis as opposed to the discordant and erratic sounds of earlier Grouper releases. Harris’s biggest hit yet arrives in the choppy acoustic plunges of “Heavy Water/I’d Rather Be Sleeping” where the vocals manage to snag attention thanks to the well layered and catchy progressions. Instrumentally, Dragging A Dead Deer Up A Hill is simply acoustic or electric guitar coated in walls of reverb or delay, often playing in an open D tuning to evoke a sense of ambiguity. 

Spacious vignettes like “Stuck,” “Invisible” and “A Cover Over” are the foundation for the tired, defeated lyrics that echo as if sung by a poltergeist whose only wish is to fade away. “When We Fall” has vocals balancing over glacial and percussive guitar strumming. Dissonance is eventually introduced with “Fishing Bird (Empty Gutted In The Evening Breeze)” and carries into the title track as well as “Tidal Wave.” 

“Wind And Snow” is a beautifully dark set piece in which Harris seems to skate closer to the gloomy atmospheres of her debut record. “We’ve All Gone To Sleep” strips back the effects so as to create a more intimate lasting impression to close out an album that is largely a bleak painting of insomnia and quiet depression. 

Grouper’s sound is not for the “Type A” individuals of the world, and is likely to unnerve the innately positive. There are dull moments across Dragging A Dead Deer Up A Hill that can turn the 45-minute runtime into a bit of a chore, but the record is highly cathartic and painfully beautiful. Liz Harris has essentially bore her soul through a series of cascading lullabies that are sung with touches of insecurity that prove endlessly relatable.

    This album is now widely available thanks to Grouper's collaborations with the Kranky label.