Album: Teen Dream
Artist: Beach House
Born: Baltimore, Maryland
Released: January 2010
Genre: Dream Pop
I once described this album as "chillwave" to some friends and could immediately hear how stupid and pretentious it sounded. The term was one I picked up listening to the Guardian Music Weekly podcast back in 2010, in which an equally ridiculous label -- "glo-fi" -- was mentioned to describe a glut of new bands that had a similar sound to Beach House, like Washed Out and Memory Tapes. Pop music is constantly in search of new genre tags to generate a sense of buzz, but in reality any sense of a "scene" is often artificially created. By 2010, Beach House were certainly no longer newbies on the scene. Teen Dream was the group's third LP, released following a switch from small indie label Carpark Records to Warner's Sub Pop, home at the time to Fleet Foxes, The Shins and Sleater-Kinney. I'd actually listened to their two earlier albums, which featured great lo-fi gems like Apple Orchard from their self-titled debut (2006) and Gila from 2009's Devotion, but Teen Dream seems such a step up in terms of sophistication and Victoria Legrand's singing, even though the dreamy and languid feel to the music remains.
Two bands whose influence looms heavily over this record are Galaxie 500 and Spiritualized, both of whom mixed dreamy melodies with lo-fi psychedelia. There are also similarities to contemporaries The xx; like them, Beach House have a boy-girl partnership (Legrand and Alex scally) at the heart of the band and create dreamy pop music that attempts to convey the intensity of teenage emotions. Legrand's singing really is the outstanding feature of this album, right from opening track Zebra, which is driven along by a programmed bass drum beats and cymbal crashes. The opening run of songs is stunning, with the rapturous Silver Soul and the melodic Norway followed by one of my favourite tracks on the record, Walk In The Park. Other highlights are the almost religious-sounding Lover Of Mine, which was recorded in a church, and the shoegaze-inspired 10 Mile Stereo. Though the album benefits from great sequencing, my only criticism would be that the second half of the LP doesn't quite match up to the first. In any case, this is a majestic record and is almost matched by their 2012 follow-up, Bloom, which benefits from more mature songwriting but doesn't really equal Teen Dream for melodic hooks and dreamy atmosphere.
I once described this album as "chillwave" to some friends and could immediately hear how stupid and pretentious it sounded. The term was one I picked up listening to the Guardian Music Weekly podcast back in 2010, in which an equally ridiculous label -- "glo-fi" -- was mentioned to describe a glut of new bands that had a similar sound to Beach House, like Washed Out and Memory Tapes. Pop music is constantly in search of new genre tags to generate a sense of buzz, but in reality any sense of a "scene" is often artificially created. By 2010, Beach House were certainly no longer newbies on the scene. Teen Dream was the group's third LP, released following a switch from small indie label Carpark Records to Warner's Sub Pop, home at the time to Fleet Foxes, The Shins and Sleater-Kinney. I'd actually listened to their two earlier albums, which featured great lo-fi gems like Apple Orchard from their self-titled debut (2006) and Gila from 2009's Devotion, but Teen Dream seems such a step up in terms of sophistication and Victoria Legrand's singing, even though the dreamy and languid feel to the music remains.
Two bands whose influence looms heavily over this record are Galaxie 500 and Spiritualized, both of whom mixed dreamy melodies with lo-fi psychedelia. There are also similarities to contemporaries The xx; like them, Beach House have a boy-girl partnership (Legrand and Alex scally) at the heart of the band and create dreamy pop music that attempts to convey the intensity of teenage emotions. Legrand's singing really is the outstanding feature of this album, right from opening track Zebra, which is driven along by a programmed bass drum beats and cymbal crashes. The opening run of songs is stunning, with the rapturous Silver Soul and the melodic Norway followed by one of my favourite tracks on the record, Walk In The Park. Other highlights are the almost religious-sounding Lover Of Mine, which was recorded in a church, and the shoegaze-inspired 10 Mile Stereo. Though the album benefits from great sequencing, my only criticism would be that the second half of the LP doesn't quite match up to the first. In any case, this is a majestic record and is almost matched by their 2012 follow-up, Bloom, which benefits from more mature songwriting but doesn't really equal Teen Dream for melodic hooks and dreamy atmosphere.
Comments