Great artists eventually perfect their craft or they arrive at an aesthetic pinnacle that they can no longer improve upon. On the Baltimore band's fifth studio album, Depression Cherry, Beach House has obviously perfected its craft and arguably reached its zenith. It is another indication of the band's best and highest use, so elegantly executed that there is little room for more to be done.
Victoria Legrand's seductive voice spins her usual dreamy webs while Alex Scally's guitar ripples with gorgeous pedal effects, easily making up one of the best combinations in popular music. Unlike the duo's last two records, Teen Dream and Bloom, which boasted majestic pop anthems, Depression Cherry is a more subtle, enveloping affair, content to let listeners languish in the pervasive romance of each song.
Scally's riffs are more textured this time, if that's even possible, although he still pushes his notes to pointed grandeur on tracks like "Sparks" and "Space Song." His fuzzed-out noise and cosmic wisps on those tracks are some of the most memorable sounds of the year. On other tracks, Scally's abstractions are a reminder that sometimes less is more, especially when paired with Legrand's star-kissed organ tones.
Opener "Levitation," one of my favorite tracks of the year, is drenched in passion, an unabashed love song, using a perfectly-apt metaphor to describe the rush of feeling that comes from going places - physically or spiritually - together. There's a place I want to take you. When the unknown will surround you.
"Wildflower," another year-end highlight, is more gorgeous uplift as the song finds an understated groove quite unlike anything else in the band's canon. Legrand reaches out to her companion in support, a mature expression of love that rings true to those who have forged on with the same mates in their life. It reminds me of feelings I've had while driving home with my wife at my side, a difficult day long spent.
Need a companion
My head in prayer
You know you're not losing your mind
What's left you make something of it
The sky what's left above it
The way you want nothing of it
Baby I'm yours
Five albums in, Beach House has become one of my all-time favorite bands, always evocative, and inhabiting a unique feeling and sound that take me to places unknown and yet all so familiar.
1 comment:
"Sparks" is definitely one of the songs of the year. Love this band.
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