Helen have returned with Linda’s Head, the trio’s first album in 11 years. Released October 2 through Kranky, the record reunites Liz Harris—widely known for her work as Grouper—with drummer Jed Bindeman and bassist Scott Simmons.
The gap stretches back to 2015’s The Original Faces, a record that placed Harris’s blurred melodic instincts inside a more communal, scrappy dream-pop setting. Linda’s Head revives that configuration at a moment when Harris has also been revisiting earlier Grouper material in concert.
Grouper’s solitude meets a band again
The distinction between Helen and Grouper remains important. Harris’s solo work is frequently defined by intimacy, retreat and carefully controlled atmosphere. Helen introduces the friction and lift of a trio. Bindeman and Simmons do not simply decorate Harris’s songs; the group’s identity depends on the sensation of musicians pushing the material together.
Recent conversation around the album has emphasized that communal quality. Harris has described collaboration with Helen as restorative, a revealing contrast with the solitary creative process associated with much of her best-known work.
An unexpected second chapter
An eleven-year gap means Linda’s Head does not arrive as part of a normal album cycle. The trio had little reason to assume listeners would be waiting for a conventional follow-up, which gives the release an unusual freedom. Songs including “Faraway,” “Starline,” “endless Sky,” the title track and “darkblue” reintroduce the group’s hazy pop language without turning the record into a nostalgia exercise.
For Harris in particular, the return also lands amid renewed discussion about independence, streaming economics and the pressures created when private or small-scale music unexpectedly reaches enormous audiences. Helen offers a different answer to those pressures: three musicians making a record together because the collaboration itself remains worth returning to.
Editorial image: Aditya Chinchure / Unsplash, licensed via Unsplash. Image is illustrative and does not depict the artist unless otherwise stated.