Oasis had been together for around ten years when they released their fifth album; by then predictable and a bit of a bore in hindsight.
Beach House is in a similar position now, minus the boredom.
‘Depression Cherry‘ comes after the success of previous albums ‘Bloom‘ and ‘Teen Dream‘, albums that shone the duo under as much mainstream limelight as they are likely to feel, which isn’t a lot but enough to hermetically seal them in as one of those good bands you don’t actually want to grow any bigger for fear that you might end up sharing in their gossamery thoughts with your parents one day.
This kind of music is reserved for you and your friends only, but it was enough for Victoria Legrand and Alex Scully to aver that the new collection is a return to the more simplistic sounds of the first two, with less live drums and fewer instruments, as previous successes had driven them to a bigger and more aggressive place, away from their natural tendencies.
It opens with ‘Levitation‘, a track that doesn’t quite live up to its title and really get off the ground, its initial bars not too dissimilar to the opener ‘Myth‘ from their last album. Jarring guitars and lush vocals on ‘Sparks‘, the lead single, sound like they’ve been taking lessons from My Bloody Valentine and its industrial beats come up again later, even more so, on ‘Bluebird‘.
“Tender is the night for a broken heart, who will dry your eyes when it falls apart,” Legrand sings on ‘Space Song‘, where Beach House prove they still know how to create those releasing, lachrymose moments, the kind where any deep, cavernous feelings inside escape through the eyes. (The lyrics suggesting they knew this when writing.) Scully’s beatific, sliding guitar notes are the sweetest thing on the album, putting this song way up there in their decade-old canon.
In fact, there is something is to be admired in Scully’s guitar work amidst the ever-present, anachronistic synths. Not a solo to be heard, they aren’t his thing anyway, instead thoughtful pickings and glib slides dominate. Listen to ‘Wildfire‘ or the Hawaiian-felt coda on ‘PPP‘ for a tranquility that should go on forever.
The influence of the Cocteau Twins on Beach House is an obvious one but less so, on this album at least, is Judee Sill – a tragic and often overlooked singer/songwriter from the 1970s. As ‘Depression Cherry’ moves on to songs like ‘Beyond Love‘ and ‘10:37‘, the vocals seem to call up the spirit of Sill’s ‘The Kiss‘, aided a little by generous reverb. Legrand’s voice has the added quality of mild sandpaper rubbing though, something that gives her broad distinction.
After only nine songs, the Baroque and hymnal ‘Days Of Candy‘ waves off the LP, resigning to the fact that, “the universe is riding off with you”, leaving behind previous musings on, “what makes this fragile world go round”, and resourceful, “what’s left you make something of it”, advice. These are songs to make you think.
Having professed tonal harks back to their older albums, yes, any of this collection could anonymously slip in somewhere between those numbers, but then again they wouldn’t sound so incongruous on the later albums either, because Beach House has created nothing significantly different here, instead carrying on the drifty cirrus sounds that their whole career has been based on.
This is anything but a criticism and even if this isn’t their best album to date, the idle energy on offer is worth it.
It always is.
