Beach House

"certainly not a 9.0 (yet another Pitchfork record store clerk overstatement)."

ok, i admit thats more or less what i thought in the beginning,(good but not great) but this album is a much more "grower" thing than i thought.
and fuck it - the 2nd half is as good as the first.it just took a little time to realize it.
only "used to be" is skippable imo.

i hate that pitchfork record store

songs should all be a bit shorter imo

i don't think this album is better than its predecessor but they're both at least 9.0 albums to me. i feel like they're naturally embedded in their style they couldn't really ever make a bad song or album, even the most boring beach house song would still be lovely and warm, would feature her voice etc.

i hate that pitchfork record store

― brews before HOOS (s1ocki), Thursday, February 4, 2010 2:44 AM

my wife thought this was a dude singer too btw

Even after finding out the girl was the singer, I looked up the credits, thinking "well maybe the dude only sings lead on some of the songs"

u guys are weird

transvestite!

I'm a big fan of all the usual references for this band (Nico, Cocteaus, Mazzy Star, Galaxie 500, Low, etc.) but can't seem to get into them to any huge degree. Just more of a "ho hum, this is kinda nice" reaction. What am I missing?

yeah, this is how I feel. i think they sound pretty good whenever they come on, but I'm never really swept away ... haven't heard the new one ...

I don't think this is quite as good as Devotion, but I fucking loved that record and I'm growing to fucking love this one too. It does need time though, the first three or four listens left me unimpressed. Now, "Silver Soul", "Walk In The Park", "10 Mile Stereo" and "Real Love" are knocking me sideways.

boring shit

Awwww... don't talk about yourself like that, Ian.

hey, is that ian zamboni of zamboni sdtks? that's a FUCKING GREAT blog, dude.

This is definitely a good argument for the beauty of content-free recordings.

What – ILM?

Ha! No, this record. It's not meant to be a zing, either. I feel like nothing happens on this record and it's perfect for it.

yeah, it's pretty basic and introverted for most of the time (with some nice nuances), a little MOR even,and i say that as a positive things.

owen otm

for me this album is just one big giant heart throb. the best moment is when she sings "i take care of you."

but "in a year or two"...

they're so good at ending songs with beautiful heartbreaking choruses that go on forever

like i said, songs go on too long

Beach House = sex

Even they think so...

“This record has a lot of sex in it and it has more balls"...

http://www.clashmusic.com/feature/beach-house

Talk complete balls though...

beach balls

ball house

liked the fallon performance but wasn't sure about headbanging to a song without a beat

i was disappointed by her fashion choices on that TV appearance.

so they got the Hope Sandoval approval - said she liked them, and that they remind her of Opal.
we can all relax.

we can all relax.

by taking quaaludes and listening to hope sandoval?

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

The more I spin this album, the less I'm convinced it's any good.

Kind of starts to sound like if Grizzly Bear started making repetitive, monochromatic songs with a female lead vocalist, instead of their usual over-orchestrated kaleidoscopic indie-pop thing. Maybe a good thing for Grizzly Bear fans... but I just think it's really boring. Not even bad, just boring. Which is probably why it reminds me of Grizzly Bear. Not bad... just boring.

if you find beautiful melodies boring then yes there is not much besides those on this album

sometimes i feel like it takes all sorts of retarded INNOVATIVE/EXPERIMENTAL/PSYCHEDELIC superfluous tags for people to be able to fuck with killer pop tunes these days. i'm sure if you ran this dream-pop album through animal collective's synth meat grinder it would'nt get knocked for being boring; but it also wouldn't be any better.

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.