Library

Another adventure, though not half so exhausting as Saturday's - Beck and I went to Birmingham to make use of a free hotel night's worth of credit she'd earned online (kind of like air miles, I guess...) by staying at Malmaison at the Mailbox. We did the sales (a bit), had a look at the fabulous new library, walked along the canal, ate steak frites and stuffed our rucksack with complimentary toiletries.

I was going to have a day off my end-of-year chart accordingly but since my attempts to match image to album have gone somewhat awry this year anyway (and I'll probably not get round to taking the shot I had planned for this one tomorrow either) and  it'd be nice to get it finished within at least spitting distance of 2015 I'll press on regardless...


#4 ‘Ruins’ by Grouper

Drowned in Sound said of Liz Harris’ last album, ‘The Man Who Died In His boat’, that the ”music falls somewhere between singer songwriter and ambient 'noise'…” and that description is yet more true of the, if anything, even better album that she has put out this year. Again ‘Ruins’ is an album assembled from old recordings, this time largely based around songs recorded on an old upright piano and obscured by clouded layers of scuffed noise and field recording to create something even more stark, resonant and beautiful. Harris has said, rather poignantly, “the album is a document (of) failed structures. Living in the remains of love.”  I’d already described ‘Ruins’ as a ‘possible point of convergence’ for a few listmaking blippers (you know who you are) before I rather embarrassingly noticed that I’d already used the self-same phrase last year about ‘The Man Who…’ but I suppose the point is clear – even if you don’t think you’re going to like the music that Grouper creates, give it a try anyway, you might just find you were mistaken…

Ruins