[Sub Pop; 2010]
Links: Beach House | Sub Pop | Purchase on Insound
Posted by Andrew Ryce on 12 January 2010
Consistency is a double-edged sword; it secures satisfaction just as easily as it engenders diminishing returns. There are certain artists who establish a signature sound from the outset but never manage to move away from or beyond it in any meaningful way. Beach House is one of these bands, but their gimmick is such a strong one that it’s almost forgivable that they’ve stubbornly stuck with it for three albums now. The Baltimore band’s sound is cavernous, warm, wintry and deceptively large for a duo – everything is generously soaked in reverb, from Victoria Legrand’s luscious, languid vocals to the ever-present hammond organ. Their music is soothing and relaxing and irresistibly romantic.
However strong their material, it doesn’t really make for well-constructed albums. They are a band that produces friendly and cozily warm ballads, but the relatively slack pace tends to blur the songs together. One person can only take so much aching beauty in a single sitting. The last two Beach House records fell victim to this, and Teen Dream is sadly no exception. It’s not all negative though; just as Devotion was a sonic improvement over the debut, compared to that record Teen Dream is a richly-produced world imbued with sensuous swathes of red and orange – but unfortunately little else. The songwriting is arguably stronger than ever, as several songs stretch beyond the five-minute mark but never feel laboured, forced or overextended. The band’s songs are made to slowly unfold and expand, and the two that do, “Silver Soul” and “Walk In The Park,” steal the show. The thing is, 10 slowly unfolding lengthy songs begin to wear after a while, and so the band has to make the rather awkward chance of properly developing their songs or truncating them in the interest of sequencing, making for unfinished and undeveloped songs.
For every bit of admitted expertise here there are some definite moments of awkwardness, whether the consequence of being a relatively young band or simply an inability to competently step outside of the comfortable confines of an established sound. A few of the tracks sound amateurish; “Lover of Mine” especially, with its completely unnatural pronunciation, sounds sloppy and rushed rather than thoroughly written. “Norway” has pretty instrumentation but is ruined by a strained and forced vocal, stretching the titular noun into 10 syllables. While Legrand may have an appealing voice, it’s not technically impressive enough to pull off this sort of Melisma. Some other attempts at (relative) experimentalism fare well; “Used To Be” has thinner, airier production – cool rather than humid and warm – and sounds like it could easily be an early ’60s pop side. “Walk In The Park” augments its strolling chorus with stunning string instruments and “Silver Soul” features wobbly steel guitar to a disarming and disorienting effect, as if it can barely be made to play a single note for any measurable amount of time.
The second half of the album drags and struggles to establish an identity, instead sounding like a halfhearted going-through-the-motions exercise rather than the more laboured first half. There isn’t much wrong with these songs (“Lover of Mine” aside), but they do almost nothing different, and by the time you’ve already listened through five Beach House songs you’ve probably had enough. Penultimate track “Real Love” is a gorgeous torch song driven by a lonely piano and an affecting, almost raspy vocal; but for all of its emotion, it is rendered almost totally ineffective placed so far at the end of the album – it’s just another Beach House song. “10 Mile Stereo,” despite a great chorus with a stunningly distorted guitar (one of the few concessions to modernity on this entire disc), has a rollicking riff that feels far too similar to the superior “Silver Soul” to be worthy of existing on the same album, and closer “Take Care” attempts to up the tempo but admittedly is too late to have any sort of real effect on the level of Teen Dream’s energy.
Ultimately it feels a little bit disingenuous to be this dismissive of an album full of mostly good-to-great songs, but the unfortunate sequencing leaves a lot to be desired. Any one of these songs might sound great on its own terms, but shoved all together their borders smudge and they become an amorphous blob of keyboards and moans. For all the hype surrounding Teen Dream (it being their Sub Pop debut), it falls short of “breaking through” or bringing the band into bold new frontiers – and while the production is certainly more professional, it’s an incremental improvement rather than an eye-opener. They’re refining their craft, producing some of their most bewitching material yet, but the rest of it feels like they’re merely spinning their wheels while they wait for more interesting ideas to come along.
67%
January 12th, 2010 at 5:40 am
I completely disagree with pretty much everything you said. I respectfully disagree with it, but it was a well written article!
January 12th, 2010 at 4:50 pm
Was he listening to the same record as me? 'Teen Dream' is superb!
January 13th, 2010 at 5:41 am
what are you thinking. I'm pretty sure they dont even use a hammond for one. And their style, while they are still the same band, has definitely matured. Its cleaner. The drums are so different. The shifts in time signatures, build-ups with cymbals…
January 13th, 2010 at 6:14 am
i don't believe you…you're a liar
January 13th, 2010 at 7:34 am
I'm willing to admit I could be wrong about the organ, but holistically I don't think it really affects what I'm saying.
January 18th, 2010 at 9:37 pm
This album is a musical masterpiece and I don't just throw that term around. Although a well-written critique, I disagree a majority of this article. Each song is complex and thick and unravels itself more with each listen. And the fact that every song on the album also ends with one phrase repeated over and over in an almost hypnotic state is one of the most beautiful touches of the album. The three or so minute fade out of “I'll Take Care of You” is daring, exciting, lovely, and utterly successful. Victoria switches how she sings almost each chorus too. For example, in Norway she stresses the NOR-way at each chorus until the final where she stresses nor-WAAAAAY. And this is done, what I believe to be consciously, throughout many songs on the album (see I'll Take Care of You). And one more beautiful moment is in A Walk in the Park (arguably the best song) where the chorus is five lines long, each line interconnected and a reworking of other lines. It's just brilliant. This record is made for the careful listener. Just as the best and most intelligent novels are written for the careful reader. Again, very well-written and insightful article but I believe this record to be an absolute masterpiece.
January 19th, 2010 at 9:45 pm
Whilst i think this review was well written, I have to disagree. The album flows really well from track to track, and contains no 'filler'. There has definitely been a progression in their sound between Devotion and Teen Dream. I think that the 'energy' of the album is fine too. Let's just agree to disagree.
January 20th, 2010 at 1:55 am
I agree with what everyone has been saying.
This article was well written but I disagreed with almost every single sentence. I get the impression that it was written after 5 or so listens but after personally listening upwards of 50 times I can't help but feel a 67% is a complete travesty for such an amazing album.
The reviewer should definitely spend more time with this one. Maybe plan a quiet night to sit on a sofa and smoke a bowl in a room lit only by fairylights, and listen to the last three songs over and over again…
January 27th, 2010 at 10:47 am
Hey!!
but anyhoo… you're blog is wayy nicer than mine that's for sure! If you have the extra 3 minutes to listen to the song I wrote that's on youtube, click here A Song About Love and dont forget to rate and comment the song! 
thanx SOOOOOO much! 
I just wrote a song about love for my girlfriend and I thought I would find lyrics on your blog so that I can compare my song
April 20th, 2010 at 6:04 am
I think one of the best qualities this has is that there's so much to enjoy at face value that this is still an enjoyable listen even if you haven't quite cracked the surface or really connected with it yet.
April 20th, 2010 at 10:04 am
I think one of the best qualities this has is that there's so much to enjoy at face value that this is still an enjoyable listen even if you haven't quite cracked the surface or really connected with it yet.
April 30th, 2010 at 5:44 am
I love this album – I would like to know what albums you love as it would help put your comments into perspective for me.
April 30th, 2010 at 9:44 am
I love this album – I would like to know what albums you love as it would help put your comments into perspective for me.