By: Raquel Dalarossa
Until two weeks ago, you could imagine the Baltimore-based worked at the kind of sedate tempo they’ve fashioned in their hazy brand of dream pop music. Singer Victoria Legrand and multi-instrumentalist Alex Scally on average go just over two years between releases, which isn’t terribly drawn out. But it is long enough to be forgotten, especially in the scope of the Internet’s fast-twitch attention span.
So, the band’s all-too earlier this month announcing the imminent release of their sixth LP just a month after their fifth was jarring. Fans were , and most often, an all-caps .
Though in the wake of the announcement that “Thank Your Lucky Stars” is not a companion album to the month-old or a collection of its B-sides, the two albums are linked by design. They were recorded together, they share the same number of tracks (nine) and they reside shoulder to shoulder on Beach House’s supplementary . To further thicken the plot, vinyl copies of “Depression Cherry” have surfaced with “Thank Your Lucky Stars”‘s lyrics and title etched into them.
Comparisons between the two albums are then inescapable. But you’d miss the point of this one-two punch if you compare their similarities. It’s rather how the albums differ that’s significant, the minute tweaks that work to undo the pervasive notion that Beach House are incapable of evolving.
Where “Depression Cherry” was ornate but oddly shapeless, the songs of “Thank Your Lucky Stars” take a pointed approach that ultimately makes for a more accessible listen. “Majorette” and “Common Girl” recall the duo’s early aesthetic, with slow-and-steady hypnotism aided by droning organs that barely conceal the pop melodies that have always seemed to spill out of Legrand. The bombast of “Cherry” and 2012’s “Bloom” before it is scaled back significantly here, leaving Legrand and Scaly alone with only the barest necessities—lush, melodic synth patterns (as on standout “All Your Yeahs”), fuzzy guitars (“One Thing”) and their tried-and-true drum machine. Lyrics are typically hit-or-miss. Unfair as it, it’s the bad ones that stick with you: “Hard to hear she spit on you and made your bloody nose more bloody” isn’t much slicker in your ears than your eyes.
This is all to say that “Thank Your Lucky Stars” is and isn’t quintessential Beach House. There’s no doubt the duo stick to their signature sound, but per usual, they approach it from slightly different angle. The subtle differences between “Lucky Stars” and “Depression Cherry” underscore these little tweaks from record to record that often go unnoticed. With their release dates stacked so closely together, it’s easier to appreciate the band’s finesse. Beach House has never been about sweeping you off your feet, and sure enough, the closest they come with “Lucky Stars” is its release date. What it does instead is lay you down so slowly that you don’t know you’ve been under until suddenly, it’s over.
