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.

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.

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.

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.