Alrighty dear readers, I just got all of my wisdom teeth out so with between the pain and the drugs I’m going to have to cut to the quick: If you’re anything like me, you spent a good deal of last winter with Beach House’s Teen Dream on repeat, long past the point that your roommates found it acceptable. But eventually the sun returned and plants started unfurling themselves and you got a little burnt out on Victoria Legrand’s androgynous vocals and Alex Scally’s dreamy keys and turned your ears to something else (in my case Kate Bush or the PORCHES’ Summer of Ten EP).
I have a tendency to listen things into the ground, so the only albums that really stay with me are the kind that grow on you as you listen to them: The albums with one or two tracks that catch your eye and get you comfortable with the artist’s sound and grab you more and more over time. My problem with Teen Dream was that it was not very dynamic. It was essentially variations on the same song, some more successful than others. At the time, that song was all I wanted to listen to, so I had no issue with hearing it 10 times over. However, given a year to sit on it, I can’t really appreciate it anymore.
Beach House’s new album Bloom is set for release this May. “Myth” is the lead single and I’m sorry to report it sounds a whole lot like something off of Teen Dream. A little more sweeping perhaps, but Legrand and Scally have not thrown us any curve balls. The structure of the song, even the chord progression, is pretty same-y. My estimation is that if you really, really liked Teen Dream you’ll probably be able to enjoy Bloom. Personally I hope that the album in its entirety can offer us something more than the spaced out melancholy we’ve come to expect, but after hearing “Myth,” I’m not holding my breath.