Only very recently have I found out, you’re able to gain access to your whole streaming history on Spotify, from the very first stream after you downloaded the service to the latest stream before you make the request for the data to be sent to you via email. It’s damn interesting. All the stuff I’ve been listening to since 2012, there in chronological order, even the songs I skipped or listened to in private mode. When it comes to Beach House’s Teen Dream, I went through the album first time ever from 1:17pm to 2:01pm on 31st January 2014. Never heard any Beach House before then. Puts me in a specific time and place, behind my laptop in my room during my freshers year at uni. I might have listened through Teen Dream but I don’t think I really listened through. I just needed more songs for the radio show I was hosting at the time. I also think I was using the “Best Ever Albums of 2010” list on besteveralbums.com as a guide, ’cause I apparently listened to Deerhunter’s Halcyon Digest not too long after. ‘Zebra’ and ‘Take Care’ were the ones that stood out initially, and it wasn’t until a real listen about a year later that I appreciated the album by a larger margin.
‘Used to Be’ was a track that jumped out as an immediately likable track on that second listen. The way the synth chords pulse on the offbeat, then Victoria Legrand comes in on the vocals with the keyboard mirroring the melody she sings. It’s all very light and reflective. Feels like a brisk bike ride in the park. Funny coming right after a track called ‘Walk in the Park’ on the album. There are subtle chord changes in the aforementioned rhythm synth pulses that drastically affect the song’s mood with each lyric Legrand sings, as she switches the melody up with each pass. And them when she sings the song’s title, the bass guitar comes in to add in a layer of warmth. She says the song title again, the rush comes in with the pressing cymbals which release after the chorus, and the music opens up as the rhythm breaks into its stride. It’s plain sailing from there. The track sees a narrator awaiting a person’s arrival from god-knows-where after being gone for what’s implied to be some time. The narrator wonders if this person is still the same as they were before they left, having gone through the experiences they must have encountered while away, and by the end, they’re just left waiting until that person comes back “any day now”. Sounds simple enough. But the whole thing’s wistful, melancholy, gets you into some nostalgic feelings. Beach House in a nutshell.
The version of ‘Used to Be’ you have on Teen Dream is a re-recorded take of the original that was released in 2008 as their first commercial single. The song goes some way back before 2010. I’ve known about this single version ever since I got into the track, but I just never got round to listening to it. That is, until leading up to writing this. Production sounds a little less streamlined, I guess? It is very nearly the same song, bar the fact that the ending section after the chorus’s last iteration arrives with a set of entirely different lyrics. Never thought that there may be people who swear by this original version and might not like how the Teen Dream take turned out. I feel like it would have been a bit of a gyp if they didn’t change the song in some way if it had been available for two years already. It’s definitely nice to have both available. I would say I do prefer the album version. That “coming home any day now” refrain. There’s obviously a lot less words to analyse, but there’s still so much you can unpack in the simple phrasing. A highlight for me from a very fine album.
