Wednesday 27 January 2010

Beach House - Teen Dream


Beach House have always offered us an amazing selection of melody and charisma but Teen Dream is the sound of an already startling band properly coming of age, the Baltimore duo have been on the radar for a while now with two albums producing dark, woozy pop with the ability to really place the listener.

Teen Dream is a very different album from the last two, it is the sound of a band growing up, taking heed of what they have achieved up to this point and changing things around just enough to create something truly majestic . Leaving behind all that they knew in Baltimore the duo isolated themselves with producer Chris Coady in a church somewhere in upstate New York to record this an intimate, nostalgia driven tale of young romance and love, Victoria Legrand fills her lyrics with cryptic diary entries which, despite written only for her to understand ring true for anyone lost in love.

Somewhere in between the first soothing melody of ‘Zebra’ to the epic fade out if ‘Take Care’ you lose yourself in the majestic splendour of their dreamy vocals and grandiose guitar based crescendos . If you had drifted off by the time Walk In The Park has faded out, the second half of the album may be enough to shake you back into consciousness with the five minute ‘Lover Of Mine’ which has a bit more substance created by a brooding dark bassline, ’10 Mile Stereo’s’ faster beat and the epic finale of ‘Take Care.’

Beach House have always been a well respected band known for their instantly recognizable ‘Dreampop’ but Teen Dream is the album that people will remember for years to come, truly a delight from start to finish, much as Animal Collective grabbed the headlines and were tipped for the year lists by almost everyone in 2009, Beach House will deservedly grab that sort of media attention in 2010 with the magically astounding/ astoundingly magical Teen Dream. Although whether they get nominated for a Brit will remain to be seen.

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