Beach House

Sorry Ma, Forgot to Hit You in the Feels

Anyway yeah I was wondering what they’re up to ...

3 years since 7 came out. *drums fingers on table*

I want to say they might be working with ... Lanois?

Quarantine Dream

IIRC they scored an installation, but yeah I'd like a new record too.

Music is all about FEELINGS man and the stuff that hits me the hardest I don’t want to stumble upon or listen to while I’m frying an egg or emptying the trash

they posted this to their IG acct last week:

https://imgur.com/a/EQ6hn26

they're my all-time favorite band, so I follow them very closely. on a podcast appearance, Victoria mentioned that they were already working on new music before the pandemic hit, and the pandemic just caused them to keep working on more music, not knowing when they'll stop. it'll continue to move towards a sonically cinematic realm in the way that the past albums have but in a more explicit way like 7. they've also hinted that they're interested in touring less(?) and making/releasing music more. so we may be coming into an embarrassment of riches when the time comes!

whoops -- did the image link wrong

basically, a fan commented on their latest IG post asking about a new album, and they responded saying they're currently working on it!

https://i.imgur.com/rW7G01J.jpeg

they've also hinted that they're interested in touring less(?) and making/releasing music more. so we may be coming into an embarrassment of riches when the time comes!

― winters (josh), Friday, September 10, 2021 8:30 PM (yesterday)
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shame about the touring since I always enjoy seeing them live....I have noticed on the last few albums that Victoria's not singing as forcefully as she used to - definitely noticed it in the live shows too. so one reason for them touring less would be to relieve the strain on her having to perform multiple nights in a row. whatever form they appear, it's gonna be great though, they can't seem to make a bad record.

https://cdn.pastemagazine.com/www/articles/2021/11/08/beachhouse-oncetwicemelody-art.jpeg

from Sub Pop's website:

"ONCE TWICE MELODY is the 8th studio album by BEACH HOUSE, who formed in 2004.

ONCE TWICE MELODY is a 2xLP, featuring 18 songs and presented in 4 chapters.

BEACH HOUSE is VICTORIA LEGRAND, lead singer and multi-instrumentalist, and ALEX SCALLY, guitarist and multi-instrumentalist. They write all of their songs together.

OTM was Produced entirely by BEACH HOUSE, a first for the band. Like their previous record 7, the live drums are by JAMES BARONE. Live drums were recorded at PACHYDERM studio in Minnesota and UNITED Studio in LA.

The Writing and Recording of ONCE TWICE MELODY began in 2018 and was completed in JULY 2021. Most of the songs were created during this time, though a few date back over the previous 10 years. Much of this recording was done at APPLE ORCHARD STUDIO in Baltimore.

ONCE TWICE MELODY was mixed largely by ALAN MOULDER, but a few tracks were also mixed by CAESAR EDMUNDS, TREVOR SPENCER, and DAVE FRIDMANN.

For the first time, a live STRING ENSEMBLE was used. Strings were arranged by DAVID CAMPBELL

Across the 18 Songs, many types of STYLE, SONG STRUCTURE, and SPIRIT can be heard; Songs WITHOUT drums, Songs centered around ACOUSTIC guitar, mostly ELECTRONIC Songs with no guitar, wandering melodies, repetitive melodies, Songs built around the STRING SECTIONS. While there are a lot of new sounds, many of the drum machines, organs, keyboards, and tones that listeners may associate with previous BEACH HOUSE records are still present throughout many of the compositions."

•••

there are also tour dates all over the world from Feb - July 2022!!!!

Excited about this but not really sold on the idea of it appearing in four installments over the next few month.

I get the sense that it’s partially integral to the experience of the album and partially to have control over the release of the album as they've publicly expressed frustration over how all their records have been leaked waaaay early on

albums released on sub pop are about the only ones that still do leak months in advance

What’s with the CAPS

that’s a GOOD question

i'm looking forward to this because 7 was their best by quite a margin

Is there a RELEASE DATE?

the full physical album will be released on Feb 18th which is when the last chapter will be released on streaming

the four parts are being released on nov 10, dec 8, jan 19, and then feb 18

OTM

Nov 10? That’s tomorrow (tomorrow…tomorrow…tomorrow)

https://i.imgur.com/dLxy08W.png

excited for this but on the other hand i hated it when hayley williams adopted almost precisely this same release strategy for her album last year - i might just listen to the first part and then wait for the rest in february

i think the hayley williams album was particularly unsuited to that release strategy because its sequencing was so chaotic. i think bill callahan did something similar recently and it wasn't as bad

OTM

― A Pile of Ants (Boring, Maryland)

OTM

definitely sounds like beach house, just with some string arrangements

second track reminds me of chromatics, a little synthpoppier than usual with that bassline

but after hearing these i'm not really sure i can tolerate a beach house double album (or quadruple ep as it's being presented), even when they're at their best it's not really like i want 90 minutes of what they do

I’d say Thank Your Lucky Stars / Depression Cherry was their best, and about that long in total

based on the first song, it does seem that they have taken the rapid chord changes of "Dark Spring" (first time I heard that it knocked me on my ass) as at least a frequent if not encompassing stylistic template, after the previous records uniformly used a more glacial framework…ohmigod, this second song! I am so fucking there for this…

i'd gladly take a monthly quadruple album from this band

^^^^^^^^^

seriously who complains about too much music from a band as good as this

"Superstar" is awesome

"Through Me" has a bit of a Stranger Things vibe. These guys rule.

Unsurprisingly this is good. I've yet to hear a song from them that I actively dislike. They're like Cocteau Twins in that way for me.

i was most taken by the first two, particularly the title track (quarter LP title track?), but it's all good

They're like Cocteau Twins in that way for me.

yeah, this is the first beach house to come out after i finally caught cocteau fever, and i was immediately thinking of them about a minute into the ep :)

and of course as soon as the last track ended on this ep, spotify went straight on to cherry-coloured funk

but tbf, spotify throws me to cocteau twins after just about think i play with a keyboard in it and singing, due to aforementioned cocteau fever event. love that duo!

it's just at this point beach house have a very familiar bag of tricks, even though they've rejuvenated things a bit with 7 and this new material too

Feels like they're going harder here than on previous albums but it's all a matter of degrees with Beach House. Opening of "Pink Funeral" reminds me of Susanne Sundfor's Ten Love Songs.

Once Twice Melody sounds like the title to a particularly bad Glee episode.

Love “superstar”.

It does not sound like Chromatics at all for me though

Production is very meticulous (maybe too much?!)
But the songs themselves are kinda Beach House generic, except Superstar which is the best song here.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nf7hoM5RdeU

oh wow "over and over"

this whole chapter is great but especially "new romance" and "over and over"

if this first half of the album we've got so far was just the album, it'd possibly be their very best

Thanks for the reminder! This is, predictably, lovely stuff.

Early limited discussion in this thread is fun. "What do people think?" "Flash in the pan." "It's nice." "Gorgeous." Ten months pass.

pondering how to approach this in our EOY poll. Is it justified to vote for only half an album?

fuck, ESP!

pondering how to approach this in our EOY poll. Is it justified to vote for only half an album?

― Muad'Doob (Moodles), Wednesday, December 8, 2021 bookmarkflaglink

Personally treating the whole thing like a 2022 album (and in fact, have been putting off listening to it until then - same with the Big Thief stuff that's come out this year.)

chapter three is out, or up, I guess…it's difficult to convey how deeply this record and this band affects me…I guess in saying that I heard Loveless first in '94 and it knocked my on my ass, and then really went hard with the Cocteau Twins five years ago after not fucking with them ever, goes some distance towards how much this record —and the prior two— hits the spot…I want to see the tour REAL BAD, assuming it happens, but I have a 1 year old and there is of course no way to know when she could have adequate protection…