Grouper’s “I’m Clean Now” Is Almost Unbearably Beautiful
The sleeve to Grouper’s Paradise Valley 7” is a color photograph of a sun-kissed tropical ocean vista—a striking departure from her usual fuzzed-out black-and-white gloomscapes. The music within follows suit—particularly “I’m Clean Now,” which might be one of the lightest, sweetest songs the Oregon musician has ever recorded. Before she’s played so much as a note, she begins the song with a simple declaration: “I’m clean now.” From that point on, run through endless reverb, her voice turns as indistinct as the whispering wind. But her finger-picking is steady and confident, her guitar tone clean, her fingertips audible as they slide across the strings. Toward the end of this short, almost unbearably beautiful song, not three minutes long, she slows her pace, determined to inhabit the space for just a little bit longer. It feels like bathing in light; it feels like purification.
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