Dragging a Dead Deer up a Hill

With a title as dreary and hopeless as Dragging a Dead Dear Up a Hill, Liz Harris' third proper Grouper LP doesn't exactly present itself as an uplifting listen. And you know what? It isn't. Yet here we are, unable to ignore Harris' ambient haze, a self-conscious cloud of delay/distortion effects that can't quite contain the inherent beauty of her sleep-deprived hooks. Well hooks in a general sense, since most Grouper songs sound like they were literally submerged in water, leaving generous layers of rust and decaying drone tones behind. Harris revealz a full-on melody in the rickety bridge of "Heavy Water / I'd Rather Be Sleeping." It's a doozy, too, making us long for a Grouper LP that completely lifts the veil off Harris' phantom vocals. For now, though, we're more than content witnessing her fevered dreams — mood music that generates the same numbing sensation as tossing a pile of sepia-toned photos in a fire.