Beach House

I love a good dream-pop album but this isn't dream-pop, it's more like mope-pop.

Better yet: snooze-pop.

so beach house reminds you of grizzly bear if grizzly bear started making music like beach house

ah, the good old days when beach house songs sounded like beach house songs written by beach house

so beach house reminds you of grizzly bear if grizzly bear started making music like beach house

Well, yes, but you're making it sound stupid. I mean, imagine if Slayer started making music like Beach House, it would be a bit different, right? So it's got something Grizzly-esque to it, their sense of neutered dull boring-ness or something.

Also, for an album full of "beautiful melodies" and "killer pop tunes" it sounds surprisingly dull to my ears. Even compared to, say, the new Hope Sandoval record (hopefully a fair comparison) this album really falls flat. Where are these tunes you speak of??

ah, the good old days before grizzly bear invented boring-ness in music

did you ever like or listen to beach house before this album, ilxor? because i can't imagine anyone being surprised or dissapointed that they would put out a record that sounds like this. if you just never liked beach house i get it that it's not your thing, but you're kind of accusing them of doing exactly what they've always done + tacking on a random grizzly bear diss.

did you ever like or listen to beach house before this album, ilxor?

I'd previously heard the first album and a couple songs from Devotion. Pretty much thought "oh, this is nice, I'll keep an eye on this band in case they turn into something awesome down the line" and moved on to other things.

You do have a point, though, maybe I've just never been the ideal fan of theirs. Though I've seen the hype around this new one and I try to give things a fair shake, regardless of past judgments, so...

+ tacking on a random grizzly bear diss.

Also, not really a random diss -- I said the Beach House album specifically reminded me of Grizzly Bear if they were less orchestrated and had a female singer, and that both were not really bad/offensive but seemed musically neutered and boring, in one way or another.

This album reminds me of beautiful melodies that I heard elsewhere.

i wish grizzly bear sounded more like beach house, then i might actually not think they are rubbish

I prefer Beach House actually! "Take Care" and "Norway" are two songs I like more than anything by GB.

the songs usually have a good melody in there but--and i say this as a fan of much minimalist pop--they really don't have enough going on, melodically or texturally (sp?), to justify their lengths. the changes in texture are often predictable in a (don't hate me please) coldplay sort of way--ok, bass here, drums here, etc.

not that this is bad by any means, just predictable and a bit zzzz. and somehow less mysterious and odd than the first two records.

they had a really fragile, very particular aesthetic going on and it was probably wrong to imagine that they could work variations on it endlessly. although maybe they'll put out a killer 4th record and surprise me.

the changes in texture are often predictable in a (don't hate me please) coldplay sort of way--ok, bass here, drums here, etc.

This is something like what I've been trying to say.

i really love 'teen dream' - and didn't care for the first two albums - but not for the 'melodies', more for the texture of the thing (the middle section of "real love" when the drone comes in and creates this odd suspension/tension between all the other elements in the song is probably my favorite moment on the whole album)

honestly if most of us (including myself most of the time) have this reflexive blinkered indie/mainstream dichotomy, there's really a similarity between how these guys and coldplay build simple melodies and sustain (some) interest via measured shifts in instrumental texture. i say that not solely to criticize one or the other band.

but i get the feeling that most people who like beach house would not be caught dead appreciating coldplay. i suppose coldplay's lyrics are a good enough reason for that.

and yeah there are some nice moments of texture on this new LP but not enough of them IMO.

sorry that 1st sentence was garbled. try again:

"honestly if most of us (including myself most of the time) didn't have this reflexive blinkered indie/mainstream dichotomy, we'd recognize that there's really a similarity between how these guys and coldplay build simple melodies and sustain (some) interest via measured shifts in instrumental texture."

i don't see how you guys don't view this as a step up on the first two records--to me it's the exact same sound palette with a lot more depth.

that being said as long as their songs all pretty much work the exact same tempos while not really doing anything interesting rhythmically, they're not going to make a masterpiece, they're going to make nice records.

I like this new album, quite a bit. Not sure I'm going to love it forever. Also, great to see the Grizzly Bear abuse is being continued in multiple threads! way to go ILXOR---
so funny they have become the whipping post when bon iver/fleet foxes are producing far more boring music and equally as "lauded"

i'm probably more down on it than i would be if i weren't posting on this thread.

??

Also, great to see the Grizzly Bear abuse is being continued in multiple threads! way to go ILXOR---
so funny they have become the whipping post when bon iver/fleet foxes are producing far more boring music and equally as "lauded"

I'm not making Grizzly Bear into a whipping post, I just said this new Beach House album with its expanded sound palette reminds me of Grizzly Bear. I don't care for Bon Iver or Fleet Foxes either, but that's not the point because Beach House remind me of neither of those bands. If they did, then I'd have said so.

Way more tonal and rhythmic and dynamic variation in Grizzly Bear than in this.

Beach House is on today's World Cafe

Baltimore dreamers Beach House sound a whole lot different live than they do on record, especially when they’re working with their recently expanded live lineup. So even if you don’t like paying for the same songs twice, Beach House’s new iTunes Sessions EP might be worth checking out. For the EP, the band– in three-piece form– turned in reworked versions of five old songs, as well as one completely new one: “White Moon”.

Tracklist:

1. Walk in the Park
2. White Moon
3. Norway
4. Silver Soul
5. Gila
6. Real Love

has anyone heard this?

haven't heard this, but I'm still loving Teen Dream, more than I thought I would

here is just the new song, it's nice:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1yrgv9FB99c

wow, based on early listens (it just arrived on emusic), teen dream is a major step-up from the prior two full-length discs, in every possible way.

it's great.

i don't know if i can ever listen to this record as i'm struggling to believe it can possibly live up to the spluttering hype it's getting everywhere

― trembling blue knees (electricsound), Wednesday, February 10, 2010 9:30 AM (6 months ago)

i listened to it and it doesn't, though it's still decent

seriously came here to post how much i loved the guy's voice. i'm even more amazed now.

i'm so in love with "zebra". it's an utterly perfect thing.

i wish the rest of the album was as good as zebra

^

They were boring when I saw them open for Vampire Weekend.

that's a really strange bill, beach-house and vampire-weekend.

Not really, I'd imagine tons of overlap between the fanbases of the two bands. Sonically, maybe a little, yeah.

Their sound is very pretty, but I could not imagine a set longer than the thirty minutes they played. Reminded me of Mazzy Star, all that twinkly melancholy.

I can imagine. When taken in very small doses of two or three songs, the band is lovely, but I have a real hard time with a full-length.

i don't have a hard time listening to the full album, and i enjoy all the tracks at least to some degree, but more often than not i find myself just playing 'zebra' or 'walk in the park' repeatedly

They've definitely got a template of sorts, but I find the newest album to be really solid from beginning to end.

revisited teen dream today and for sure best album of 2010!!!

does anyone have TMZ type shit on the guy and girl in the band? are they like deep and transcendent lovers or something? they gotta be.

In an interview with this week’s NME, sepia-poppers Beach House get rather lavish about their forthcoming fourth album, Bloom.

According to Alex Scally, one half of the group, Bloom – co-produced by Chris Coady, who worked on the most recent albums by Cold Cave and Gang Gang Dance – will be “their own Pet Sounds or Disintegration, not in sound, but as something which feels like a definitive statement.”

“I could make the pop music I hear on the radio”, Scally continues. “Victoria [Legrand, Beach House vocalist] has a great voice – we could easily churn out a Rihanna hit. It would take about 15 minutes. And then she’d just have to wear no clothes and I’d have to get a tattoo or something or something, and then the next thing we’re huge for, like, five minutes. But if that was going to be our course, it would’ve happened a long time ago.”

though the new song via pitchfork today sounds exactly like a Teen Dream take, which is great.

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I feel like I pretty much missed this band in the flurry of bands named beach coast and best house and beast coach

getting around to the s/t now, and it's great - perfect for a week of sub-freezing weather and probable snow

I think i do get why some ppl bag on bloom, but I really love it, listened to it more than any other 12 release probly.

Need 2 check beast couch.