It’s been a while since I’ve heard a record I enjoy as much as Beach House’s Teen Dream. It just doesn’t happen for me very often anymore. That I listen over and over to a record. That I can’t not listen. That I think every song must have been loved equally by its maker. That shit is “all killer, no filler.” That I want to read interviews with the band.
I’m surprised, really.
After really digging their first record, especially “Master of None”, and after witnessing a swell live performance, I had been disappointed by the lack of dynamics in either sound or songwriting on the follow-up, Devotion. I worried the band had fallen into the Mazzy Star trap, giving themselves over to the narcotic charisma of the amazing lead vocal, and counting on her melodic skills to define every hook. That way isn’t completely without its appeal. It’s hard not to love the sepia-toned minimalism of those first two records, with the spare interplay between organ, piano, and slide guitar suggesting a chopped and screwed Reigning Sound.
Victoria Legrand’s voice really is capable of carrying everything, but on Teen Dream she finally gets some help. From the very first song, there’s a new determination to vary the band’s pace. “Zebra” begins with the best guitar hook I’ve heard from the band, but it’s not clear they’ve changed anything until nearly a minute into the song when a kick drum starts tapping out insistent quarter beats. “Woah. We might actually be able to hear the drums on this record,” I say to myself. And after the first chorus, that’s exactly what we get. An audible drum kit.
The next track, “Silver Soul”, could have been on either of the first two records, but they’ve taken the drums out of the water. No longer does everything sound like a click-track waltz. The added heft builds a structure around Legrand’s voice. She sounds more powerful. She might have to stand up and sing these songs.
When the Fleetwood-Mac inpsired “Norway” kicks in, it’s hard not to get excited. Another mid-tempo song! With breathy background accents! There’s even a bridge!
After hearing “Norway” and “Zebra” you might think things are a bit front-loaded. Nope. After those first free tracks, Teen Dream starts to earn its name. It becomes even more overtly pop-oriented, deploying an arsenal of slurpee-sweet piano and organ hooks. Seriously, it sounds like the sullen goth girl has finally donned a sun dress. It wouldn’t take a miracle for Kelly Clarkson or some other American Idol contestant to transform “Lover of Mine” or “10 Mile Stereo” into a top 10 hit.
The miracle is, as Pitchfork put it, that none of this sound like a compromise. Any of these songs could have been integrated into Beach House or Devotion. Any of these songs could be returned to the gauzy organ and click-time minimalism that made their first two records sound so damn charming. A hit like “Used to Be” can still be stripped down to raw, sad-bastard heart.
But listen to Legrand at the end of this video as she starts singing TLC’s “Waterfalls”. Teen Dream isn’t afraid to explode. The fact that it probably won’t achieve the gold-status it deserves makes it more like a hipster’s dream. We get a boatload of catchy genius that never quite catches on the way it should. Will it remain out of the shadows or get into the Starbucks? I don’t care. I just know I haven’t actually enjoyed a record this much since Radiohead’s In Rainbows.
Yay, music.
This doesn’t do it for me. It sounds like a hybrid of Mazzy Star and Neko Case, but isn’t as good as either.
Other than her vocal register, I’m not really hearing any Case. As for Mazzy Star, there are lots of similarities, but with this record they avoid the limitations I thought Mazzy Star always embraced. Mazzy Star = One Trick Pony.
Other than her vocal register, I’m not really hearing any Case. As for Mazzy Star
I definitely hear similarities to Case’s phrasing.
Mazzy Star = One Trick
Maybe, but I’m okay with Mazzy Star’s trick, since it’s a more skillfully executed trick than anything from Beach House’s bag of tricks. Listening to Beach House makes me think that they graduated from the Malkmus school of half-assery.
I kind of like the second one-shot video/song. better than the other clip posted which, i agree, recalls mazzy star a bit too much, which is not bad, but not good enough.
What i would be more interested in knowing is why this has captured your attention the way it has. You go thru a somewhat formalistic approach in describing why it’s so great. It’s almost scientific, yet i’d be more interesting in reading about why it reached you that way. we all know how subjective the subject of music is. So even if a record is completely uncompromised, for example, that’s not enough reason, in my book, to like it. It might be a good reason to admire it, and to respect it, but is it enough reason to move me? it’s not, plenty of uncompromised and downright crappy records have moved me, as much as there have been perfect records that leave me cold. I’d like to know what is it about this record that moves you, and even more so, i’d like to read about what is it about your life, your person, that has made the connection with this record in such a powerful way. And i do really like that song, at least that performance of it on the beach. I do in part because the increasing complexity of my life has led me to appreciate very simple things, and in particular the one-shot videos that have been resurfacing recently, this one being at the beach is particulary nice, me having grown up on the beach and now living far from it. I like it, though i’m not sure i’ll go buy the record and may not play the song again, though its good knowing it’s there. thanks for posting it.
It’s difficult to say what works so well for me emotionally, except to note that I love music and, especially voices, like this already. VU + Nico, Cat Power, Mazzy Star, Cowboy Junkies, Jefferson / Grace Slick, and Jana Hunter (who lives in Baltimore and is pals with Beach House). I also love Neko Case, even if I don’t hear that particular parallel. But it’s of a piece with some of my favorite musics and musicians ever. The girl with laconic phrasing, and the deep strong voice. I’m always a sucker for that.
The other thing that hits me is the pop classicism of this record. It doesn’t sound like indie rock to me. Many of these songs could have been played in any era or style. 60s girl group, late-60s folk, 70s disco, whatever. The GoGos could have done these songs. So could Suzanne Vega. There’s a flexibility to the songwriting on this record that transcends genre and scene labels. Which is a hard thing to find right now among bands that are trying to sell to college kids. Grizzly Bear is another good example, but they’re pretty boring a lot of the time.
These are mostly love songs about love, written for anyone to sing. I’m wary of overpraising the band; they’re not freaking Cole Porter. Or even Lou Reed. But they’re not limiting themselves to their time with their songcraft. And writing outside your own time isn’t easy.
Is it better than the one great Mazzy Star record that everyone should already own? Nah. At least two tracks on that record are all-time great songs.
But what always excites me about a band is when you figure out they have more than one record in them. More than one thing they can do. Relatively few bands boast multiple quality records worth owning. I’m sitting on one pretty good Beach House record. And one really good Beach House record. I am a satisfied customer.
I also dig Beach House. Here’s a good pitchfork.tv session they did:
http://pitchfork.com/tv/#/episode/29-beach-house
Her singing gives me a spine-tingling sensation sometimes. How did someone so young get that voice and that presence? If they did blow up, I could easily see her on stage at the Grammys or somewhere without being a bit nervous.