''Grid of Points'' is the eleventh

studio album An album is a collection of audio recordings issued on compact disc (CD), Phonograph record, vinyl, audio tape, or another medium such as Digital distribution#Music, digital distribution. Albums of recorded sound were developed in the early ...

by the American musician Liz Harris under the stage name

Grouper Groupers are fish of any of a number of genera in the subfamily Epinephelinae of the family Serranidae, in the order Perciformes. Not all serranids are called "groupers"; the family also includes the sea basses. The common name "grouper" is u ...

. It was released in the United States on April 27, 2018, by Kranky.

Recording

In 2014, Liz Harris had a residency at the

Ucross Foundation The Ucross Foundation, located in Ucross, Wyoming, is a nonprofit organization that operates an internationally known retreat for visual artists, writers, composers, and choreographers working in all creative disciplines. History Founded in 1981 ...

Wyoming Wyoming () is a U.S. state, state in the Mountain states, Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It is bordered by Montana to the north and northwest, South Dakota and Nebraska to the east, Idaho to the west, Utah to the south ...

. While there, a cold snap kept her indoors and she began to write and record the songs that became ''Grid of Points''. The writing period lasted a week and a half before she developed a fever and stopped. Describing the process, Harris said, "Though brief, it is complete. The intimacy and abbreviation of this music allude to an essence that the songs lyrics speak more directly of. The space left after matter has departed, a stage after the characters have gone, the hollow of some central column, missing." The short length of the album initially worried the label, which thought that listeners would feel short-changed. However, Harris refused to add more songs, telling the label, "This is the complete idea. It just happens to be 22 minutes." The song "Parking Lot" was inspired by a scene from the film ''

Zabriskie Point Zabriskie Point is a part of the Amargosa Range located east of Death Valley in Death Valley National Park in California, United States, noted for its erosional landscape. It is composed of sediments from Furnace Creek Lake, which dried up 5 mil ...

'' depicting the California desert, which aligned with Harris' own impression. "Driving" was inspired by an image of tree-tunnels, people driving to a funeral and Harris' own family, "trying to find a way through it, without thinking it has to be excavated or turned into something positive".

Release

''Grid of Points'' was announced on March 8, 2018. Accompanying the announcement, the track "Parking Lot" was released. "Parking Lot" was named one of NPR's "Songs We Love" and ''Pitchfork'' awarded it their "Best New Track" status. A second pre-release track, "Driving", was issued on April 3.

Critical reception

The aggregate review site ''

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...

'' assigns an average score of 80 out of 100 to the album based on 21 reviews, indicating "generally favorable reviews". Writing for ''

Drowned in Sound ''Drowned in Sound'', sometimes abbreviated to ''DiS'', is a UK-based music webzine financed by artist management company Silentway. Founded by editor Sean Adams, the site features reviews, news, interviews, and discussion forums. History ''D ...

'', Benjamin Bland described ''Grid of Points'' as "even more austere than its predecessor" and "astonishingly beautiful and astonishingly, painfully real". Tom Beedham of ''

Exclaim! ''Exclaim!'' is a Canadian music and entertainment publisher based in Toronto, which features in-depth coverage of new music across all genres with a special focus on Canadian and emerging artists. The monthly Exclaim! print magazine publishes 7 ...

'' wrote that "with the spare concrete signifiers and evocative open spaces she provides on ''Grid of Points'', she's crafted a map for the full spectrum of human emotions and experiences". Despite overall praise, reviewers were mixed on whether the length was a positive or negative. Heather Phares of ''

AllMusic AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the databas ...

'' praised Harris for sticking with her initial recordings, writing, "Wisely, Harris didn't try to inflate it into something more elaborate." Steven Johnson of ''

MusicOMH MusicOMH (stylized as musicOMH) is a London-based online music magazine which publishes independent reviews, features and interviews from across all genres including classical, metal, rock and R&B. History MusicOMH was founded and launched by ...

'' was more critical, arguing that "the relative brevity and sparseness of the album … won't see ''Grid Of Points'' talked of in the same elevated way as some of her other work". ''Grid of Points'' was ranked the 40th best release of the year in ''

The Wire ''The Wire'' is an American Crime film, crime drama Television show, television series created and primarily written by author and former police reporter David Simon. The series was broadcast by the cable network HBO in the United States. ''The ...

'' magazine's annual critics' poll.

Accolades

Track listing

References

{{Authority control Grouper (musician) albums 2018 albums Ambient albums by American artists Kranky albums