Dragging a Dead Deer Up a Hill offers moments that are just as memorable as the entire album, and all of them are subtly, but stunningly, beautiful.
Dragging a Dead Deer Up a Hill is not an album I’d recommend to just anyone; an audience will eventually find Grouper, and when they do, it’ll be more than well-deserved.
Dragging a Dead deer Up a Hill may display some of the growing pains she’s working out in attempting to find a sound between the early ambient-style work she made her name on and more poppish fare.
Liz Harris has dialed down the washes of fuzz that cloaked her first two records as Grouper, and for the most part that’s a good choice.
an amazing mix of ambient and psychedelic folk. the reverb on this makes it so dreamy and beautiful, along with her vocals which really adds to the atmosphere. listening to this while falling asleep was an amazing experience, it makes you feel very empty and hollow. these songs are so simple and minimalistic, yet there's so many textures and sounds that all make it the masterpiece it is.
Shoutout to @Irissssssssssss, thanks for the recommendation!
I've been wanting to dive further into Grouper's discography for quite a while after hearing A I A: Alien Observer around this time last year; it's easily one of the best ambient albums I've ever heard with its dreamlike undertone mixed with harmonious vocals that leave the listener in a trance.
Her fifth album Dragging a Dead Deer Up a Hill has a similar hazy, dreamlike undertone to it but with a more slow psychedelic folk touch ... read more
Grouper filled a space I never knew was empty. She manages to blur the edges between the artist and the environment in her music through the heavy use of looping and reverb. I like to think that she buries herself below the surface of her songs. Instead of being in the foreground, the listener needs to parse through a dense thicket of noise to uncover Liz Harris's soft voice. Songs bleed into each other, and the lyrics are typically indiscernible. As someone who loves getting lost in music, ... read more
this is pretty similar to their last album besides the fact that you can actually kind of make out what they're saying (nah you can't) but it's at the cost of the droney ambient not being as mind bending. it's made up for the fact that there are some pretty beautiful melodies which don't really feel too complicated paired with dream-pop vocals, it just sounds very nice and uncomplicated, yet sombre in a soothing way. most of this also sounds pretty similar, but it changes up enough to where i ... read more
Well that was disappointing. I've had this on my library to listen for like a year because the cover is so cool. I'm giving this a 50 because nothing on this is bad, but it is extremely boring and forgettable outside of the second track. I did skip parts of songs throughout the latter half because I didn't want to waste a full 45 minutes on this. I do like some ambient music, but this lacked the prettiness or beauty of something like a lot of Aphex Twin stuff. It just feels like the standard ... read more
1 | Disengaged 4:16 | 89 |
2 | Heavy Water / I'd Rather Be Sleeping 2:53 | 95 |
3 | Stuck 5:59 | 90 |
4 | When We Fall 2:07 | 89 |
5 | Traveling Through a Sea 4:23 | 88 |
6 | Fishing Bird (Empty Gutted In the Evening Breeze) 3:51 | 91 |
7 | Invisible 3:55 | 91 |
8 | I'm Dragging a Dead Deer Up a Hill 2:21 | 84 |
9 | A Cover Over 2:48 | 88 |
10 | Wind and Snow 4:30 | 87 |
11 | Tidal Wave 5:35 | 89 |
12 | We've All Gone to Sleep 3:03 | 92 |
#32 | / | Consequence of Sound |
#37 | / | Pitchfork |