Tag Archives: beach house

#1211: Beach House – Silver Soul

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Beach House’s Teen Dream probably goes down as the favourite of mine by the group. There are definitely bigger fans of the band than me, I can say that without exaggerating. But I’ll always find myself waiting for a new release if ever a new one is announced and on the horizon. Teen Dream was the first Beach House album I heard, during a period where I was finding critically-praised albums and finding out for myself whether they deserved the praise or not. It began with ‘Zebra’, and that track felt so familiar even though I’d never heard it before. And then ‘Silver Soul’ follows. While I can’t fully remember how I felt about it that first time, I tell you now, it’s up there in Beach House song preferences.

I think it’s been more than 10 years that I’ve known the track and listened through it. I couldn’t tell you what any of it means. Or at least I couldn’t give a solid interpretation. To me, it feels like one of those numbers where the music was laid out and the lyrics had to be done, so they were, and that’s what they are now. It all mainly revolves around “It’s happening again” lyrical refrain, which may or may not have been influenced by Twin Peaks. What I can say really matters to me is how Victoria Legrand sings throughout, her vocal’s just captivating. I don’t think Beach House usually go down as a “heavy” band, but I’ve always felt this track is incredibly so. The track starts off incredibly floaty, but when those crunching harmonising guitars come in around 20 seconds in, I can’t help but scrunch my face up and nod my head to the rhythm. A lot of times, I just hum the what-would-be bassline’s (left channel) melody throughout rather than the vocals themselves.

Other things you might want to know about this song… Hmm. Well, it was sampled in a Kendrick Lamar song. A very popular one by him, in fact. I’m very sure I heard the Lamar song before ‘Silver Soul’ too, but never made the connection. The sample was in a reversed state, so I feel I can forgive myself for that. During the closing moments while Legrand’s singing the refrain, guitarist Alex Scally starts singing other lyrics underneath. No one’s revealed what he is saying. I can make out, “If you want to stay inside…”, and “…and you will come and see, how could this be.” That’s about it from my side. It also seems that the music video contains the full proper version of the song. Whereas on the album the song slides right into the next one, the video has the last note of the song ringing out for almost a minute. It’s beautiful stuff.

#1020: Beach House – Pay No Mind

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God, 2018 was five years ago, how strange is that? Nothing too remarkable happened for me that year. But it was a good time to be a Beach House fan. Three years on after the surprise double release of Depression Cherry and Thank Your Lucky Stars, and along came 7 – the band’s aptly-titled seventh album. The headline news behind this new album was that Sonic Boom (Peter Kember) would be producing it, the first of the band’s not to be (co-)produced by Chris Coady since Devotion in 2008. The big question, how would this move affect Beach House’s sound? The answer, not by a vast amount. Beach House sounded like Beach House as per usual. No complaints. But Kember’s production provided a difference in sonics that sets the record apart from the others within the band’s discography.

‘Pay No Mind’ is the second track on 7. After the propulsive start of ‘Dark Spring’, proceedings are slowed right down. Alex Scally’s reverb-drenched guitars are accompanied by reverb-drenched snare and kick drum, and a constant synthesizer hum to represent what would be the bassline. The production work here makes the sonic palette sound expansive and far-reaching, and so warm that it feels like I’m sinking to a huge cushion when I listen to it. Can appreciate a good song that does that. And when everything truly opens up at around 1:26 in, with those chiming piano keys. Well, that’s just a moment of euphoria right there. Victoria Legrand’s vocals are as smooth as ever, only adding to the overall consoling tone that I don’t think I’m wrong in saying the track is going for.

Terms of lyrics, in one way I think the majority of it is made of words where the syllables needed to match the rhythm of the music. Not to say that the lyrics are inconsistent or poorly written, because they aren’t. But I think there’s a definite feel of lyrics to evoke imagery rather than to provide a narrative. Where the most ‘soul-bearing’ or whatever occurs is in what I guess you would label as the chorus: “Baby at night when I look at you/Nothing in this world keeps me confused/All it takes: look in your eyes.” I mean, that’s real love-feelings isn’t it. Otherwise, I think the song’s main message is in its title. Things won’t go as you want them to go. You’ve got to do what you can to make in this world, but it takes time. Don’t work yourself up into a stress. Pay no mind. Or something to that effect.

#895: Beach House – Myth

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I’m not the biggest follower of Beach House. I think I only got round to listening some albums of theirs initially because Pitchfork said they were very good. This would’ve been back in 2013/14 or so. Their latest record at that point was Bloom, an LP that was considered to be a tenth of a point better than the album that preceded it. Having listened to those albums for some time now, I’ve gotta say my favourite between the two is Teen Dream. I just like more songs from there. But Bloom has some highlights itself, one of those by a mile is the opener, ‘Myth’.

Like the first track that came before on Teen Dream, ‘Myth’ basically grabbed me straight away with the progression of that twinkling guitar in the intro. Everything after that was an added bonus. Victoria Legrand’s voice was just as ‘grand’ and majestic, smokey still, but with a bunch of reverb this time round. The vocal melody was striking and seemed so familiar, even though I hadn’t heard the track before. It seemed like one of those that has always been in the ether somewhere. Obviously it hadn’t, but by the end of the track I was humming along like I’d known it for years. I couldn’t sing to it; I didn’t know the lyrics. And then to round it all off comes that crying guitar sort of solo to bring it home before transitioning into the quiet keyboard riff that’s been looping since the track’s start. All comes round full circle, and it’s beautiful stuff.

Beach House have some great, great songs. They’re just in a list of those artists/bands that indieheads love that I’ve never been able to quite get into. Arcade Fire, LCD Soundsystem… Sufjan Stevens. Those iconic indie people, I guess. Same situation, all have great songs, but there’s just something about them all I’m not able to vibe. But you know, it doesn’t matter that much. It’s okay. You should never try and force these things. All of these songs I’ll continue to vibe to when the time is right.