Grouper mastermind Liz Harris' music requires multiple listens for it to take shape. On "Vital," from The Man Who Died in His Boat (out February 4th on Kranky), her voice is distant as tape hiss fills in the murky cracks. It sounds like she recorded the track in a room so big that her fingers echo endlessly when they scrape across her guitar strings. "Vital" is intimacy blown out and cavernous, haunting and huge; it's warm, too, as a barely discernible string of words blanket the song before disappearing entirely, giving way to what sounds like a plane flying over in the background.
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