Helen Returns After 11 Years With “Linda’s Head”

Helen released The Original Faces in 2015 and stopped. The group was never simply an explanatory appendix to Liz Harris’s work as Grouper. With bassist Scott Simmons and drummer Jed Bindeman, she made denser, louder music in which the voice did less narrating than trying to get through the guitars.

The trio has now announced Linda’s Head, due on 2 October through Kranky, 11 years after its only studio album. Two tracks introduce the ten-song record: the title track and “Dead Shark II”. No reunion speech was attached.

The titles suggest an internal vocabulary. “Dead Shark II” has a “Dead Shark” beside it; elsewhere are “Faraway”, “Endless Sky”, “Darkblue” and “Black and Quiet Love”. That is not yet a plot, merely a set of labels on closed doors. It is enough to establish that this is an album with its own room, rather than incidental time away from Harris’s principal project.

The last Grouper album, Shade, appeared in 2021. Harris will play six North American dates in September, though no Helen performances have been announced. The return begins with a record, not a tour itinerary or a retrospective explanation.

After 11 years, the restraint is almost practical. Helen has supplied a date, ten titles and two songs — enough to put the band back into the present tense. The rest can be left to the noise, which has always preferred speaking in several layers at once.