Customer Reviews

Devotion

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

"If it ain't broke, don't fix it," as the old saying goes, and it continues to apply to so many bands who trip over though themselves in an attempt to improve the quality of their music. Thank heaven, , for the ones who don't pay attention to the cliché and surface with something greater than anyone could have expected. Last year, Burial dropped my jaw to the floor when he released Untrue--a record that was a thousand times better than his rock-solid eponymous debut. Burial picked up on a unique sound and saw it to its logical endpoint, but Untrue had the power to move you to awe and great swells of emotion, and you could live in it. And now, Beach House is finding itself in a similar scenario, in which the limitations of their seemingly faultless first record only become apparent after the quietly stunning Devotion eclipses it in nearly every way.

When the band's debut, Beach House, dropped in October 2006, it heightened our awareness of the current fall season. With only the sparest of parts--a guitar, a keyboard, a voice and a drum machine, recorded onto a four-track--the duo of Victoria Legrand ('01) and Alex Scally squeezed out fuzzy, creaky love songs that felt like being draped in a timeworn blanket or an elegant coat from long ago. It wasn't autumn as experienced outdoors, but autumn as viewed from the window of a living room covered in deep browns and faded yellows. On their second record, Beach House have opened up their sound, for lack of a better term, and given it room to breathe. The melodies are sweeter, the songs more compositionally complex, the sound--my goodness, that sound! No longer tied to a four-track, Beach House trades fuzz for a gossamer echo that's guaranteed to put a lump in your throat, and these uniformly wonderful songs resonate as clear as a bell. It wasn't that Beach House was inferior or less than mellifluous--perhaps just more closed-off than it could have been. On Devotion, Beach House lets you fully inside.

It's entirely possible to pass through Devotion without understanding a single word. I imagine that this is just fine with Legrand, since she mentioned in an interview with the Miscellany News that listeners should take her lyrics and create their own personally relevant dramas from them. Even without all of the vocals being clear, however, certain themes on Devotion reveal themselves through more unexpected avenues. The track titles refer to concepts like love ("You Came to Me," "D.A.R.L.I.N.G."), travel ("Turtle Island," "Astronaut,"), and celebration ("Wedding Bell," "Holy Dances"), and because these themes can be easily connected to each other, Devotion works fantastically well as a whole. The waltzing, swinging rhythms likewise seem to sweep you up and whisk you somewhere far away. Beach House understands and capitalizes on music's possibility as a transportive device; at its most evocative, Devotion can take you to places unknown, treasured or both.

Yes, Devotion really is that good. Beach House had exactly one knockout track, "Apple Orchard," that elevated the record beyond where it otherwise would have been. Their "Apple Orchard" this time out is "Holy Dances," Devotion's exotic and stupefyingly amazing centerpiece. Its melodies seem to be infused with cane sugar, and the way the toms and hand-bells slide from rhythm to rhythm with such effortless grace brings to mind a fluid, undulating body movement--halfway between a dance and a soft caress. "Astronaut" lives up to its title with its otherworldly, glimmering keyboards that shoot listeners into a crystalline solar system, as does "Wedding Bell," a celebratory song that--were it a half-step slower--would make the perfect wedding dance at the hippest reception in town. As for the other tracks on Devotion, well, you'll have to take my word that they're all freaking gorgeous--every single one of them.

And then there's the matter of Legrand's voice, possibly the most divisive constituent at the Beach House party. It's husky, and doesn't sound particularly feminine on its own, and the four-track recorder that the duo used on their debut didn't lend it very much allure. That's all behind us now. With Devotion's vastly higher fidelity and misty echo effect, Legrand is given the space to stretch herself and try out her surprisingly wide range, and she sounds, finally, like an angel. But the improvement also has to do with Legrand herself, how she's exponentially more confident and at times even extroverted (she nearly belts on "Wedding Bell"), as though Beach House were a merely a dry run for the real thing. Perhaps the best compliment I can pay her is that her voice doesn't seem to come from a human in a recording studio, but arises out of nature like a phenomenon too beautiful to comprehend.

For all the talk about changes, it's easy to forget that Beach House are largely sticking to what they've been doing all along. Two albums into their career, they're still recognizably themselves and haven't made much effort to shake up their winning formula. They haven't added any woodwinds or zithers or even a bassist, and beneath the guitars and keyboards ticks the steady pulse of that drum machine they've kept in tow, reinforcing the fact that this music is still being made by two people. Like Burial before them, what Beach House have actually done is zeroed in on a fantastic idea and nearly perfected it, while bearing the precious human connection in mind. Forget the old, sloppy comparisons to Mazzy Star and Nico; Beach House now sounds like Beach House and nobody else. Their love for what they do is apparent not only in what they say but in what they play, and it's their devotion to a sound, a mood, a texture, a lover, a fantasy, that places Devotion already among the best records of 2008.

The name of Beach House might imply a certain kind of pop -- sunny, frothy, sort of a Beach Boys vibe.

If so, that name is very deceptive, because their music is none of the above. Hailing from Baltimore, Beach House's second album "Devotion" is more like sleeping in a haunted, jewelled music box -- all ghostly singing, lushly sparkling pop instrumentation and sensually dreamy melodies.

"Wedding Bell" spins itself a stately, rippling organ'n'grimy riffs framework, with Victoria Legrand's pretty, eerie voice singing distantly, "You're ringing the only wedding bell/and we're swimming the seas we know so well... I tried to stay in line in our bed/in our heads/Oh, but your wish is my command..." It's very catchy in a neo-Victorian shoegazer way, although much catchier than anything that follows.

But things get far eerier in "You Came to Me," a shimmering ghostly pop ballad punctuated by sweeps of satiny keyboard and timpani. That style carries over into the lilting, swirling sound of "Gila," ruled by a truly exquisite organ melody. And not many singers could sing the name of a lizard and actually sound serious.

And those songs set the tone for much of the album -- ethereal organ laments, shimmering little pop tunes strung with tambourine and swirling guitar, sparkling melodies with spacey carnival synth, tinkly soaring ballads, and so forth. But it ends as catchily -- if more alluringly -- as it started, with the warm, wobbling "Home Again." It sounds exactly as the title would imply.

If I had to describe the particular sound of Beach House, I'd have to say it sounds like an American Nico... fronting the musical lovechild of Mazzy Star and Goldfrapp's latest. Yeah, that sounds weird, but "Devotion" has qualities of those bands -- the haunting vocals, the swirling shoegazer-like pop balladry, and the sparkling framework of lush, warm electronica. Well, the carnival music doesn't entirely fit in.

The first song is a bit of a sore thumb, being rockier and peppier than all the rest -- it's lovely, but seems like a hook to draw you in. But after that, the album is enfolded in a swirling mass of swirling ringing guitars and Legrand's majestic, shimmering organ. Alex Scally wraps every melody in a elusive, hazy shell of keyboard. And there's a Nicoesque tambourine that gets shaken through some of the songs, as well as that great timpani.

Legrand's voice is really a lovely one, but filtered to sound powerfully ethereal. She can infuse a feeling of poignant longing into the songs -- they tend to be about loving someone in the moment, or from afar ("we still have the summers/to be good to one another"), and have moments of truly striking imagery ("... spending money/on a desert rose/holy dances and acronyms/for bones").

Haunting, beautiful and melodious, their second album "Devotion" is a step up for Beach House. Definitely one of this year's must-hears.

Beach House is a duo hailing from Baltimore, consisting of singer-songwriter Victoria Legrand and multi-instrumentalist Alex Scally. In 2006 they released their self-titled sebut album, and now comes the eagerly awaited follow-up.

On "Devotion" (11 tracks, 44 min.) the band continues the dreamy sound they brought on the debut album, and ever so slightly are a bit more open and optimistic in their songs. Opener "Wedding Bell" sets the stage for the album, with a fuller sound than ever before. "Gila" and "Turtle Island" even have some gentle melodies to them, which is more than you can say for any tracks on the debut album. Other highlights on the album for me include "Heart of Chambers", a pensive ballad, Beach House-style; "Some Things Last (A Long Time)", and the closer "Home Again", which ends the album on a hopeful and optimistic note.

In the end, "Devotion" is, like the debut album, a mood piece, pure and simple. This is not for anyone in a hurry, but if you give yourself (and the band) the chance, you'll be surprised how hypnotizing it all sounds. "Devotion" is warmly recommended!

A whole shade better than their 2006 album, Beach House continues to make easy to love electronic pop songs. Their formula remains in place albeit with more inflection in the melodies and lyrics and it makes for a deeper more generous listen, one that captures the nostalgic longing they wish to conjure up. They can be reminding of The Clientele at times or a softer electronic version of Yo La Tengo. Beach House continues to realize the potential hinted on their 2006 record and this will take up room on my IPod for quite some time.

This is an absolutely amazing album. The more you listen to it the more it seeps in. I love Beach House and every album gets better and better. They're true musicians, experimenting and finding their sound. Always evolving and staying true to their essence.

This is one of my favorites. It is a little less produced and complex than "Teen Dream" but it almost makes it better.

I just plain enjoy listening to this album....and look forward to the new work coming out later this month!

This record is very similar to their first album, which was highly influenced by Mazzy Star, Galaxie 500, etc. Overall, I cannot yet chose between the two records. The first one has more classic songs but I think this one is more consistent.

The sound has improved somewhat. It's certainly not overproduced or shiny sounding. It's still very haunting and it sounds like they are using a different drum machine? There are a couple songs that sound like the Cocteau Twins with a different singer. That's definitely a compliment!

Overall, this is a great album. If you liked the first one, you will like this one! Do not hesitate to pick this up before they get even bigger tours and start playing bigger venues.

To start, I heard `Teen Dream' before any Beach House album. Right away I have to say it is not as inspired and fleshed out as `Teen Dream'. `Devotion' may be a little more dreamy, sleepy, wintry and druggy spaced out. It simply does not have the life, diversity and power of `TD'. What's really strange to me is that their self titled debut sounds more like a warm up to `TD'. I like that the lyrics are more audible on `TD' than on this album. It's far from terrible, it's just kinda there. I do like it's strange "stoned in an empty church with hazy sun beams coming through the windows in the morning" feel and sound - does that makes any sense? `Heart of Chamber', 'Astronaut' and 'Gila' are the strongest songs on the album in my humble opinion. `Teen Dream' may be the best album they will make, it's also one of the best albums of it's kind ever made and it's just about as good a Slowdive's `Souvlaki'. Also reminds me a little of early Low. `Devotion' could grow on me and I may add a star but, for now, I give it 3 stars.

The duo, and in particular the mixed-gender duo, whether romantically linked or not, is ubiquitous nowadays. It's really the earmark of "art-rock" to some degree (sparse, personal, atmospheric), and that's all well and fine and there is definitely a place for it. A stripped-down GOOD song has an immediacy that you get differently with a larger band.

Unfortunately, the pitfalls are great as well - the songs oftentimes tend to sound droning, unfocused, redundant and self-similar. Such is the case with "Beach House - Devotion". The band has some potential - the songwriting and vocal delivery hints at possible talent hidden in the overly confessional overtones.

Having said that, this band is fairly popular locally, so they are tapped into some market. Good for them!