GROUPER: RUINS (available 10.31)

GENRE: ANGELIC AMBIENCE
LABEL: KRANKY

If often make recreational crying/sad/rainy night playlists, you might already be acquainted with the queen of ambient haze, Liz Harris (a.k.a Grouper) and her latest LP, Ruins. It’s a refreshing departure from last year’s The Man Who Died in His Boat and features Harris’ blurry and lovely echo of a voice, the one we’ve come to know and love—and weep to. This time however, she sorrowfully whisper-sings over an upright piano instead of a guitar. On the haunting lullaby “Clearing,” the piano mimics the vocal melody and the two seem to melt into one another while she questions, “How can I explain why it’s safer just to be alone?” If you listen close enough to drowsy “Labyrinth,” you can hear crickets, falling rain, the creaking of a piano bench, and even a random microwave beep. The songs all sounds as simple as the way they were recorded—alone in Portugal on a portable 4-track. Let’s applaud Harris for, once again, graciously giving us her unabashed vulnerability in song form.