Beach House

Digging into it in full now. I can’t help but contrast it to last week’s double album from Big Thief, which is so full of shifting styles and pacing even while always retaining its Big Thief-ness. Beach House on the other hand are going for a sustained 80-minute vibe. (n.b. I haven’t gotten all the way to the end yet.)

Neither approach is better nor worse.

Not a lot of activity on this thread now that it’s fully out. Is it just an anti-climax since folks have had enough time to acclimate to it?

I put off playing most of the EPs other than few cursory listens. Initial standouts for me are the title track, “Runaway” and “New Romance”. Still absorbing the back half.

still waiting for my copy to arrive

It's funny how many of us praise Spoon for their foolish consistency yet I get quite bored with Beach House. I might absorb the new album with less resistance if it were 35 or 40 minutes long.

Has there ever been an epically Long Beach House song? I feel like that could d happened on this album. Like if you really want us to settle into the vibe, give us one that really envelops.

this album is just too much at once, there's good material here but it doesn't justify the length at all

When Bloom came out I was disappointed because it seemed so similar to their previous albums and I wanted something wild and fresh from them. I'd listened to S/T, Devotion and Teen Dream dozens of times but couldn't get into Bloom. Then after Depression Cherry / TYLS I realized that Beach House is just really good at exactly what they do. From S/T to 7, it's incredible stuff, and to pull off such consistency in craft and execution, for 16+ years is extremely rare. I'm excited to get a full listen in on Once Twice Melody.

It is kinda their great strength and great weakness at once. There are times when this feels like a slog and other times when it’s just a perfectly sustained mood, and I think that perception has more to do with me in any given moment than it does the quality of any one song.

Well said

I'm digging the seasick swoon of "Modern Love Stories". Beach House LPs usually take about six months to embed themselves in my heart so I'm just rolling with it for now.

same here. i tend to be disappointed in their latest in then a couple years later it's in my usual beach rotation

Maddens me when they pull that shit on black athletes because hello, they're the only ones with a platform. When it's some "average" citizen making the complaints the dismissal is just as quick but the rationale changes to "pfft they just want free shit"

Oops

over and over is fucking incredible

^^^^^^

Beach House’s new album Once Twice Melody is No. 1 on Billboard’s Top Album Sales chart this week, Billboard reports. Of the 20,300 copies the band sold in the first week, over 70% of those came from vinyl sales.

this makes me realize how out of touch i am with music and how it works, how it sells, the formats, the amounts, the band involved, absolutely everything

this seems like a bizarro clip from a 1970s world where no one bought music (note: i love beach house etc etc, not ripping them)

just sign o the times etc

what's so hard to understand, karl? the people that would be into this band would want to invest in a physical manifestation, as I did. I am somewhat surprised that enough people bought the record in enough numbers that it met that metric…but not that surprised…

not surprised at all that they're on top - i think that's great! i'm more just surprised that a #1 album in the US "only" sold ~20K copies in its first week. but i think my brain is still calibrated for 2000-era sales figures

I wanted to have a day-of-purchase experience with the new album but wasn't in the vicinity of a proper record store that day. I wanted the CD and visited a Barnes and Noble that was supposed to have it in stock, but they couldn't find it; I ended up buying the standard black vinyl across the street at Target, who weren't stocking the CD.

visited a Barnes and Noble that was supposed to have it in stock, but they couldn't find it

Yeah, this seems to be par for the course. I've pretty much given up buying music there. The last time I went was to pick up Neil Young's latest which, three weeks after release day, was still sitting in a box in the back that they had to dig out. Can't tell you how many times prior to that I heard, "well it says we have it in stock, but I can't find it".

Beach House’s new album Once Twice Melody is No. 1 on Billboard’s Top Album Sales chart this week, Billboard reports. Of the 20,300 copies the band sold in the first week, over 70% of those came from vinyl sales.

this makes me realize how out of touch i am with music and how it works, how it sells, the formats, the amounts, the band involved, absolutely everything

― the world's undisputed #1 fan of 'Spud Infinity' (Karl Malone)

that quote makes it sound better then it is. if you look at the Billboard Top 200 you can see Beach House is at number 12. when you factor in what is being streamed then it actually drops and they are talking about pure sales without streams. the only reason i know all this is because i was tracking Spoon's new album. it debuted at number 38 last week in the Top 200 but fell out of the Top 200 in the second week. Big Thief was number 31 in the Top 200 last week but also, surprisingly, fell out of the Billboard Top 200 this week as well. ILM couldn't keep it in there i see,

https://pitchfork.com/news/kanye-west-posts-studio-photos-with-beach-house/amp/
Thought this was gross.

Beach House now also collaborating w/Pete Davidson.

This is so good. I'm really impressed. I've always liked, but never fully loved this band. I always heard lots of good "vibe", but the songs never clicked for me. I don't find that to be the case here, as soon as "Superstar" was over I was absolutely hooked.

https://pitchfork.com/news/kanye-west-posts-studio-photos-with-beach-house/amp/
Thought this was gross.

― Chris L

Agreed.

still letting this record sink in, but there are already 3 greatest-of-all-time beach house songs on this one: over and over, masquerade, and modern love stories

also, is modern love stories their first use of acoustic guitar?

title cut has acoustic, fairly sure there are others on the record without checking…

Beach House’s new album Once Twice Melody is No. 1 on Billboard’s Top Album Sales chart this week, Billboard reports. Of the 20,300 copies the band sold in the first week, over 70% of those came from vinyl sales.

wow

was mentioned before, top albums sales chart isn't the top 200 that incorporates streaming, just pure sales like the pre-2014 chart.

as the industry has become increasingly streaming-centric recently those two charts have diverged a lot more and now it's pretty normal for indie acts who are a popularity tier below the ones who regularly chart in the top 5 anyway to get #1 for album sales on weeks that there's no bigger new release. haim had a similar outcome in 2020, getting #1 on the album sales chart while only reaching #13 on the top 200.

Okay I appreciate the humor

Honestly not far off from the truth https://t.co/9XCHkkD9O3

— Beach House (@BeaccchHoussse) May 4, 2022

I think the staggered release ultimately killed OTM for me, the front of the album is overplayed and means I lose interest before I get to the less familiar stuff toward the end. Hats off to those who waited til the whole thing was out.

Yeah I kind of miss the electricity of ‘7’ and its tour. I saw Beach House recently and the energy just wasn’t the same. The gig I saw in 2017 was eardrum shatteringly wild.

one of my favorite in music, all-time, is the instrumental passage near the end of the end of "Myth", where it adds in the synth-strings for the first time, and somehow the thudding toms which have been present the entire song seem even more pounding. i don't listen to beach house for the lyrics -- i would be hard pressed to name more than a few snippets. but the name of the song, "Myth", alone is perfect for the feeling when those strings come in

Was first dance at our wedding.

<3

I know

silent thinking "damn, what a great choice" several times over.

I've always loved Beach House, they are one of my favorite bands. I've recently come around to fully accept their programmed drum sound.

Myth is such a great song, very swoon-worthy and perfect as a first dance song. It makes me wish I had gone to your wedding, Alba, even though I hate weddings

For me they’re like a continuation of Cocteau Twins’ HOLV period but stripped back to the emotional core, i.e. more or less perfect

(another band to whom programmed drums are essential)

good lord there is so much emotion in 'depression cherry', i'm eight years too late but i cannot get it off the stereo. recommendations of where to go next, either within their catalogue or something of this ilk?

I think if you scroll back in this thread you’ll see some rankings of favorites but generally I’d say you’re safe with everything from Teen Dream to 7. The albums before TD are a little rawer, and the newest double album is too much of the same all at once.

I think Once twice Melody is excellent, maybe two or three cuts are merely okay & too lachrymose, the majority is poignant and manna for people like me who are way into analog synth… and furthermore, last year, after 20 years in which pop, r&b and hip-hop artists were my favorites in contemporary music, Beach House, nominally an indie rock act, were my favorites…