Pitchfork: 30 Best Dream Pop Albums
by teague

https://pitchfork.com/features/lists-and-guides/the-30-best-dream-pop-albums/

• Chart updated: 09/04/2021 21:15
• (Created: 09/04/2021 21:06).
• Chart size: 30 albums.

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6.

Dragging A Dead Deer Up A Hill 

 Grouper

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Liz Harris’ early work as Grouper was dark and distorted, a black-hearted churn of ambient and noise that found her burying her voice under piles of sonic sludge. With Dragging a Dead Deer Up a Hill, her music crawled out from under the wreckage and turned to face the sunlight. Where she once assembled free-flowing “pieces,” she was now singing proper songs, ones that connected strands of British folk, gothic lullabies, and devotional music as heard echoing through an ancient cathedral. And it’s all done with very little. Most of the tracks on Deer feature just a few elements—a gently strummed guitar and Harris’ processed and layered voice predominate—and the arrangements are thin and airy, evoking the tingle of buried memory returning to consciousness. But an intense ache sits at their center of these songs like a boulder. Every note drips with loss and the music is crushingly sad, but by sharing in Grouper’s pain, we get a feeling that art just might save us. –Mark Richardson

Year of Release:

2008

Appears in:

148 charts

Rank Score:

1,152

Rank in 2008:

15

Rank in 2000s:

233

Overall Rank:

1,475

Average Rating:

 77 (177 votes)

Comments:

8

18.

Ruins 

 Grouper

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Grouper’s Liz Harris recorded Ruins in a small town off the coast of Portugal during an artist’s residency; the atmosphere of the place, miles away from her home in Portland, Oregon, bleeds into the album as much as any instrument. While most Grouper records cultivate dissonance and noise, Ruins focuses more on silence and all the sounds that can fill it. Frogs croak in the space she leaves between piano chords. At one point, without warning, a microwave beeps. What other artists might consider mistakes, Harris considers connection to a world of sound bigger than what she herself can create.

That openness to her environment sets the perfect backdrop for what remains one of Grouper’s loveliest and softest albums. Most songs revolve around Harris’ voice and a piano. Her lyrics, uncloaked by reverb, become easier to pick out, and narratives of loss, alienation, and stunted affection emerge. Ruins is a document of loneliness, but it’s also the sound of someone opening themselves to their surroundings, softening the boundaries between the self and everything outside the self. Once you’ve learned to be permeable, being alone can prove to be a deeply fruitful state. –Sasha Geffen

Year of Release:

2014

Appears in:

138 charts

Rank Score:

743

Rank in 2014:

41

Rank in 2010s:

360

Overall Rank:

2,183

Average Rating:

 78 (146 votes)

Comments:

3

Total albums: 2. Page 1 of 1

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Pitchfork: 30 Best Dream Pop Albums composition

Decade	Albums	%
1930s	0	0%
1940s	0	0%
1950s	0	0%
1960s	0	0%
1970s	0	0%
1980s	5	17%
1990s	8	27%
2000s	10	33%
2010s	7	23%
2020s	0	0%

Artist	Albums	%
Mazzy Star	2	7%
Low	2	7%
Beach House	2	7%
Galaxie 500	2	7%
Grouper	2	7%
Cocteau Twins	2	7%
Chromatics	1	3%
Show all

Country	Albums	%
	19	63%
	9	30%
	1	3%
	1	3%

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Pitchfork: 30 Best Dream Pop Albums ratings

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Rating	Date updated	Member	Chart ratings	Avg. chart rating
75/100	06/04/2025 15:58	Johnnyo	2,531	80/100

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