Place By the Sea

With the release of their self-titled debut in 2006, I originally predicted big things for Beach House. This was before anybody really had caught onto them and the stellar reviews started pouring in. It's always nice to see a band you've supported in the early stages wind up being heavily respected by this increasingly large music community we all live in. Needless to say, after lots of touring and such, Beach House had the challenge before them of crafting a follow-up album that'd be as equally respected as their stellar debut.

The new album is "Devotion," and you can definitely tell that it's a Beach House album. They have a distinctive sound that isn't heard much these days. Very wispy, moderately solemn, mostly keyboard-heavy, yet beautiful and with plenty of smart songcraft. Though with the band's debut I spoke of how great it'd be to put on during a lazy summer's day, I'd later read a lot of people writing that it was a good "fall, spring, or maybe even dead-of-winter kind of record." Obviously this is the opposite of what I had originally said. The more I listened to Beach House and as I spent a year consistently listening to that debut album, I found it did sound best during the transitional seasons of fall and spring. Hence, I find it wonderful that Beach House is releasing their album on Tuesday, just a few weeks before things begin to thaw. If you're like me and think winter is never going to end, maybe listening to "Devotion" for a few weeks will put you in that mental state for when the weather actually arrives.

Sonically speaking, there's very little difference between the first and second Beach House albums. The songs are different, but have the same sound to them, which I described earlier. This works both to the band's advantage and disadvantage. It's great because they're not messing with the formula that got them so much success in the first place. It's also bad for that exact same reason. Think of it this way though- The Strokes and Interpol essentially made their first two albums sound exactly the same and they lost no critical respect for doing so (it was when they attempted to break out of those shells that they both were harmed). I'm of the mind that with certain bands change is not a good thing. Right now I'm very pleased with "Devotion" for the same reasons I was very pleased with their self-titled debut. This sounds like an extension of that and therefore equally wonderful. As the saying goes, "if it ain't broke, don't fix it." Certainly Beach House has the market cornered on that sound of theirs, so with no real imitators (currently making music) to try and steal their thunder, they can keep riding that same old track.

As a final bit, I'm entirely unsure as to what sort of ideas you've gotten from the paragraphs above, so I'd like to air this out a little clearer. I love this album. It is absolutely wonderful and you should buy a copy. Chances are it'll wind up somewhere on my year-end best-of list. It's like a beautiful dream you shouldn't have to wake up from. Hopefully that's easier to interpret. And that's really all I've got to say anyways.

Beach House- Gila
Beach House- Heart of Chambers

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