The Country of Miracles also known as The Dinner is Ruined have worked with Downie on his previous two solo releases, Coke Machine Glow and Battle of the Nudes.

[4] The album takes its title from Son of the Morning Star by Evan S. Connell, a book which Downie was reading.

While reading the book, Downie came across the phrase "the grand bounce" referring to desertion, which he later used as the title to the album.

The Grand Bounce version was generally more acoustic and keyboard based, which is similar to Downie's previous solo work.

[7] Ross Langager of PopMatters gave the album an 8/10 and stated that it "retains the indie rock-poet aesthetic of its predecessors while splicing in a measure of arena-sized muscle borrowed from his daytime gig".

[1] Brophy stated that "The hash-hazed sonic adventuring of the old records has been effectively compartmentalized in favour of a more zen approach and the end result is some of the best songs in the Downie canon".