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Oct 31, 2014With Ruins, Harris opens up a portal to one of those clearings, and I don’t feel quite as bombarded affectively and aesthetically (by problems, timelines, insecurities, noise, and other people) when I hear its call and disappear there.
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Nov 10, 2014Ruins is one of her finest works, full to the brim with emotion in spite of the aching space at its heart.
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Oct 28, 2014It stands as both a fascinating new direction, and a heartbreaking memoir of a period now sinking into the past.
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Oct 28, 2014For most of its running time, you won’t want to move anywhere, either. Maybe don’t stay that way forever, but frequent returns to Ruins in the coming years are guaranteed.
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Oct 28, 2014Ruins has a vivid sense of place.
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Oct 29, 2014Grouper tenderly and quietly beckons you nearer, allowing the sadness to seep into your bloodstream. Lyrics are distant and difficult to decipher, however it isn't hard to comprehend the emotional weight of each track.
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The WireDec 2, 2014It's an almost-pitch-perfect progression of eight tracks across 39 minutes. [Oct 2014, p.54]
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Nov 25, 2014It’s somewhere between 2011’s Dragging a Dead Deer Up a Hill and, say, Peter Jefferies’s Last Great Challenge For a Dull World; there are discernible melodies here, but above them is an overwhelming sense of loss, and the musical chops to channel it.
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Nov 10, 2014Factor in some brilliant shards of melody in songs like 'Clearing', 'Call Across Rooms' and 'Holding' and Ruins becomes an unexpected gem: that rare album that reels you in without even trying.
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Nov 7, 2014Harris deploys silence and sound artfully and masterfully throughout Ruins. And the closer you listen, the more intimate it becomes.
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Nov 3, 2014While Ruins' sound is stripped-down, it's filled with emotional magnitudes. Harris' confessions are that much more devastating thanks to their almost overheard nature, and her whispered vocals mean her audience has to listen to them as closely as possible.
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Oct 28, 2014It’s a typically resourceful, subtle and mesmeric addendum--and one that underlines just how consistently excellent an artist Harris has been.
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Oct 28, 2014Ruins is at once more formally stately than those [previous] albums, with Harris accompanied only by a stiff piano, and more emotionally obtuse, her lyrics back under a slight veil, taken out of the stark glare that made songs like ‘We’ve Become Invisible’ so touching.
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Nov 6, 2014Ruins’ eight tracks include four with vocals and four instrumentals. Still, the tracks with vocals and those without are not very different from each other.
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Oct 31, 2014Only the lengthy closer "Made of Air," while in line with Harris' more drone-based experimental output, seems somewhat unnecessary here.... Otherwise, Grouper's latest is yet another exceptional offering that captures a truly unique voice in a uniquely natural setting.
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Nov 3, 2014Despite consisting of well-crafted, thoughtful songs, the emotional gutpunch that is to be expected from a Grouper album never quite arrives over multiple listens.
User score distribution:
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Positive: 36 out of 43
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Mixed: 5 out of 43
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Negative: 2 out of 43
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Nov 6, 2014