Beach House

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.

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?