In the summer of 2019, I emailed Daniel Rossen out of the blue because I had been listening to the Department of Eagles and felt like conveying how much his music moved me. By then, it had been two years since Grizzly Bear’s Painted Ruins and seven years since Rossen’s solo EP Silent Hour/Golden Mile. Rossen released the single “Deerslayer” for Record Store Day in 2018, but I hadn’t heard it until long after I reached out, which I did by visiting his then-spare website, the only text displaying a brief note to fans that he was taking some time for himself and his family, the possibility of new music real, if a little distant.