The album was produced by Jace Lacek (of the aforementioned The Besnard Lakes – who coincidentally also have a new album, Until In Excess, Imperceptible), and offers an intriguing mix of indie rock, folk and post-rock style atmospherics. Recorded and mixed in just twelve days, Tragic Care was inspired by a year of loss and heartache, lyrically dealing with the emotional fallout involved in coming to terms with loss and rejection. It’s certainly not all doom and gloom though, there are definite chinks of light and hope. It’s a bittersweet record. Check out Moth In The Porch Light in the player below:

You can buy the album now via Outside Music, or download a deluxe version via iTunes (deluxe version includes a cover of Hiver Mile-End by Québécoise singer-songwriter Ariane Moffatt). The band are also about to join Aidan Knight on a tour of Canada, check the dates here.

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The label’s blurb contains a few words by Harris on her inspiration for the album and indicates where she got the title from:

When I was a teenager the wreckage of a sailboat washed up on the shore of Agate Beach. The remains of the vessel weren’t removed for several days. I walked down with my father to peer inside the boat cabin. Maps, coffee cups and clothing were strewn around inside.

I remember looking only briefly, wilted by the feeling that I was violating some remnant of this man’s presence by witnessing the evidence of its failure. Later I read a story about him in the paper. It was impossible to know what had happened. The boat had never crashed or capsized. He had simply slipped off somehow, and the boat, like a riderless horse, eventually came back home.

You can pre-order both albums now from Kranky (look for Grouper on the catalogue page and then click on the little flags to order via paypal).

P.S. If you are unfamiliar with Grouper’s work then I highly suggest checking it out. You can hear Dragging A Dead Deer Up A Hill on Soundcloud and can purchase her releases from most good music shops.

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“I think no matter how stable I am I will always be searching, I guess that’s what this album is about. The endless searching, the fruitless waiting, the idea of a home that is inside yourself”.

She contemplates love and life and death and does so in a way that feels both fundamental in some timeless sense, and also novel and fresh and raw. It is an album with melancholy that cuts straight to the bone but it also feels oddly comforting. I found myself becoming increasingly attached to the album with repeated listens. It wasn’t so much a “grower” as a “grabber”, it reels you in and won’t let go, and if you’re anything like me then you won’t want to be let go.

You can get the album from Bathetic Records, although the initial pressing of the record has sold out. A second pressing is well underway and the label says all orders with be fulfilled as soon as possible. You can also get the album as a digital download from most of the big music sites, and can also listen to it in full via Spotify.

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