Beach House - Bloom

nah. i like it. nothing will ever be as good as their cover for devotion though, if you ask me.

cover connection:
http://cdn.stereogum.com/files/2012/01/Frankie-Rose-Interstellar.jpg

http://gnaracidlovemusic.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/Animal_collective_merriweather-300x300.jpg

also
http://www.collapseboard.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/wet-hair.jpg
Wet hair album on De Stijl from last year

at least the music itself isn't boring

IRENE

squarepusher's new record:
http://media.warp.net/images/Vinyl_Lights_On.jpg

WILL YOU PEOPLE STOP

lots of hooks on this record and the production is a bit too polished: i guess it might result in getting them closer to mainstream audience.
also, except for Myth, the second half of the record is better than the first.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uvwl7INZykc

This album is great great great. Love how relatively big the choruses and production are. Every song feels like an all-out attempt to top "Fade Into You" in the hearts and minds of the public. A couple of them out-M83 M83, too.

I burned out on this quickly...

Damn, that's my fear. I worry about how any album that's so instantly absorbing can hold up over the long haul (especially since much of the appeal of Teen Dream was how that album really, really took its time).

Either way, though, I'm loving the album now, so that's worth something

the label had some shit luck with the release of this record. I don't even think it's out yet and it feels like everyone has had it for months.

"I burned out on this quickly...

― Exile in lolville (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn),"

me too, BUT i returned to it afterwards again. great record, for the most part.

http://www.npr.org/2012/05/06/151227631/first-listen-beach-house-bloom?ps=mh_fl

this plus 1/2 bottle of wine is like being shot up with morphine pretty much. wanna question quality of music, but the experience feels so good that i don't care.

ALBUM OF THE YEAR

so far...

Better live than I expected -- the new material sounds great.

so this is really pretty

This is pretty shameless:

http://pitchfork.com/news/46564-beach-house-ripped-off-by-british-car-ad/

I've liked what i've heard of them on WFMU, but I burn out on albums before I hear them.

^i've got sympathy for the musicians who were hired to do that ad. in my imagination the car company execs used the original as a reference and asked them to do something in a similar style, which they did in a non-plagiaristic way, then got asked for revisions because "can you make it sound more like the other song?" seen it happen with friends who do this kind of work.

until they give kendra smith some $ they can stfu

are beach house going to fall forever in the same category as spoon and the national by making lovely, critic friendly and appreciated records without ever changing style in any way?
it's all good and nice, but it just seems like no progression at all here (not always a be all and end all obvs).

I like them and this one is their best but I can't imagine getting excited about them; they're a really good minor band.

VW ad track is better than "Take Care" imo.

^ i've got sympathy for the musicians who were hired to do that ad.

Me, none. If you can't plagiarize gracefully, you should get out of the commercial music racket. It's possible that BH were contacted about a licence, but didn't wish to affiliate one of their more 'personal' songs with a car company. Now, the damage has been done regardless.

To my ears, this commercial "cover" doesn't sound any more like "Take Care" than fifty other proper originals released by blog hype bands. In fact, the VW track actually reminds me more of some subtle Arcade Fire stuff.

Or, even more than that, The Walkmen.

VW ad track is better than "Take Care" imo.

Ouch.

Bloom sounds like Teen Dream only on first listening.
actually,although it resemble it, it's poppier, and more polished.

To my ears, this commercial "cover" doesn't sound any more like "Take Care" than fifty other proper originals released by blog hype bands.

If you're joking, then "lol, right", but otherwise "?" The VW song is a straight-up lift, there's nothing to distinguish it.

The melodies and instrumentation are largely dissimilar. Maybe the "vibe" is the same, but big deal. That vibe is all over the fucking place the last few years.

I mean, there's a closer resemblance between "Ghostbusters" and "I Want a New Drug" than this VW song and "Take Care".

it's only just close enough to avoid litigation (& i'm sure VW did some research into that) to say it's superior is just challops.

to say it's superior is just challops

A challop? Maybe. But an op all the same. (Seriously, if Hamilton Leithauser was singing instead of a nameless vocalist, it would be a great Walkmen song.)

http://pitchfork.com/news/46570-beach-house-respond-to-volkswagen-ad/

So I guess the ad agency DID make a play for the song, but were denied. Indie nerds are totally making a mountain out of a molehill, though.

eh if they wanted the track and made a soundalike that was transparent enough for that many people to notice (i haven't compared) then it's fair game for people to cry foul

Basically, one person thought so and then Pitchfork carried the flag. I still say that if you put "Take Care" in a mix with a bunch of other songs that sound like it, you wouldn't be able to distinguish the VW ad's song from any of the others as "the replica".

the (male) vocalist is very closely copying Legrand's vocal style which is pretty unique sounding even amongst a slew of imitators. the song key lyrics is "i'll watch over you" in place of the almost exact point where Legrand sings "i'll take care of you." you may not like BH or care that they've been ripped off but you're being disingenuous here.

No, I do like a fair amount of Beach House material, but I'm still not hearing enough similarity between these recordings for people's short to get all in a wad.

every time i hear a BH song without actively knowing or thinking about who i'm listening to her voice scans as a male voice to me

this kind of "ripping off" is totally fine, who cares. "that stoner rock band rips off black sabbath!"

same here, i was kinda shocked when i first saw a video. i thought it was a female sounding dude rather than a woman who sounds like a dude who sounds like a woman.

am0n, it's a whole different thing if an ad agency commission a soundalike track after a licensing refusal from a band.

Beach House's response is that they don't care about it too much either but i suspect that they're just being gracious.

not illegal, totally fine. case closed

its all on the up and up

probably those kinds of deliberate soundalikes happen all the time but the case is usually more like this than something undeniably obviously like getting a guy to sing like Tom Waits

Its not illegal, but its a huge dick move.

"Can we use your song?"

"No."

"Fine, we'll just pay some schlubs to craft a subtlely different 'take' on it."

The only reason this is a big deal is because it was used in a tv ad. The same people complaining about this are the people who download Girl Talk albums the first day they're available and champion his straight up unlicensed use of dozens of copyrighted recordings.

i bet the editors live in lavish rat-infested shitholes and eat premium peanut butter

Breaking News: Beach House Rips Off Exploding Eggs Sequence From Ghostbusters
"We tried to get the rights to just show a clip from the film, but we couldn't afford it. So we made our own," says Victoria Legrand

is this a srs debate? this p4k writer aside, people watching a beach house video have probably seen ghostbusters, because everyone has seen ghostbusters, and so it can be generally assumed on all sides that it's homage rather than rip-off, cuz who'd be idiotic enough to think you can rip off ghostbusters and get away with it. the same doesn't really apply to some big company 'paying homage' to moderately popular indie band beach house in their ads.

A more appropriate comparison would be accusing VW of ripping off Benz for making a car containing a combustion engine

you can't make a beach house video w/o breaking eggs

Getting paid pretty well would be in relation to how well the writers are getting paid. I imagine that the editors at least are getting regular (albeit minor) paychecks.

But look, I didn't even pose anything as a debate. I just think that this being "news" at all is ridiculous and ironic but was not even trying to implicate the band. As stated, I am sure that they have reasonable opinions on all of these things.

The video removes all context from the borrowed scenes, as the add does to the original song. We can hypothetically assume that the audience of the VW adds is less aware of what they are watching/hearing than the viewers of the Beach House video. The band, Pitchfork, and VW are all pushing brands, or at least actively trying to get your attention, and in that light I just see that much difference between the two. This stuff is inherently problematic. I am sure if my band was getting homaged that heavily I would be somewhat upset, but maybe not so much if we were actively borrowing visually from really popular movies in our videos that were then getting broadcast on a really popular website.

Uhh, don't see that much difference is what I meant

I wanna give my testimony here. if somebody wanted to move this thread to '77 after I do, I wouldn't complain, but no big. In I think 2008, during a really pretty horrible period for me personally, some people got in touch with me asking me to sing & play a tune they had already written for a tv ad. The campaign was greenlit, somebody was going to sing this tune anyway and there was about two payments on the car in it for me, small money but still money. They sent me their demo of the song, and then we had a phone conversation about what they wanted.

They never explicitly said it, but it was very, very clear, both from the song itself & from the way they described what they wanted, was a song that sounded exactly like an indie artist who was & is a friend of mine & who'd recently come into considerable success. The song in question was a clear & obvious bite on this songwriter's style. I was to basically imitate my friend for money. I didn't do this; I found out they'd asked, like, half my friends for similar takes. I don't know who the person was that they ended up hiring, but when the ad aired half a year later, the singer they'd gotten was straight-up imitating my bud. Their whole approach was v. scummy & gross, from the "we've been fans forever" with lots of old-days reminiscences to their "you know what we mean" pitch. IOW what cantankerous indie ppl suspect & get aggro about in this shit is true. You can take their money or they'll pay somebody to bite your style. It's bullshit, imo.

― decrepit but free (underrated aerosmith bootlegs I have owned), Tuesday, June 5, 2012 4:25 PM

so u didn't do it, big whoop, here's yr medal. also why in the world would this thread "move to 77". get over yourself ffs

this record is nice!

take that shit to 77

The larger point is that p4k tends to stack the decks towards their most favored artists in the most annoying and shameless way possible. (Note: this is not intended as criticism for those here who write for them)

Oh I forgot to add 'intentional or not' to the end of the first sentence.

Pitchfork is shameless and annoying (not intended as criticism)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bv7IcjmxjGo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9OFpfTd0EIs

WOW

ilxor otm

got no human grace

:)

Probably not an original thought, but Beach House reminds me a lot of these guys

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b9Ox-lGm-wA

Has anybody seen them tour this record? How is it?

This has not stood the test of time with me sadly as I love Teen Dream and all their back catalog.

The album faded fast for me, too, but they're touring behind a really great show. Good setlist, awesome light show, and they sound heavier and louder than you'd probably expect

I still love the album so I guess I should go see them.

I saw them on Saturday in Toronto. They were terrific. Evan is right. They do sound heavier and louder than expected. They played five or six songs from Teen Dream and a handful from Devotion. And for me, Bloom hasn't faded. Still one of my favourite albums of the year.

I wonder how much of this happens on a strictly regional level? I ask because there is a Gulf Coast casino currently running a TV ad soundtracked by a very faithful copping of the riff from The Black Keys' "Howlin' For You" (it's an even closer cop than the Pizza Hut "Gold On The Ceiling" ad in the above linked article).

― Hare Kinsey (C. Grisso/McCain), Tuesday, June 5, 2012 10:01 PM (7 months ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Lawyer Up

cool, hope they lose

just threw this on for the first time in over a year and it sounds great. have not been able to get into Depression Cherry at all