Review: Beach House – Teen Dream
Beach House - Teen Dream (2010) [Sub Pop] // Grade: B+
It seems unlikely at first blush that an album could be simultaneously more optimistic and more melancholy (and not just a little either way), but one listen to Beach House’s third release and suddenly anything seems possible: ecstasy and desperation not just in the same song, but the same verse, the same notes. Of course, teen love (or lovesickness) feels precisely so schizophrenic, and the album’s title is a free pass for explaining away the complexity. The Drums, Wavves, all those artists that throw themselves back into the high-school fray long enough to search steady for the sadness in it—maybe Beach House is simply reverting, too.
Except I don’t think that’s totally true. Even without the snoozefest circular argument about intent and meaning (including, of course, a lot of speculation about the symbolism of the album being recorded in a converted church), it’s pretty easy to see that the Baltimore dream-pop pair are moving forward, not back, in every conceivable way. Forget the spare minimalism of previous releases—Teen Dream is gigantic and gorgeously overwhelming, an album that doesn’t showcase the band at its best so much as it does an almost brand-new band. “Norway” charges in on a thump of drums, exploding into Alex Scally’s gilded guitars and a melody that slips sea-sickly in and out of tune. And the deathly sweet “Lover Of Mine” skitters from funereal to hopeful (a perfect lullaby either way) with Victoria Legrand’s voice a tangle of Patti Smith and Siouxsie Sioux. The whole thing is shimmery and propulsive—not a thick fog, but what it feels like to drive straight out of it.
There are, of course, more familiar moments: “Silver Soul” channels Mazzy Star in the way so characteristic of Beach House, and the simple piano jaunt of “Used To Be” could be an abandoned, dressed-up cut from 2008′s Devotion. And sure, the album does at times trade charm for expanse; all that reverb, that huge sense of space, tends to drown out the most subtle bits of personality. But rest assured: those moments are rare. Overall, Teen Dream is an intense reach skyward for a duo never content to sit on their laurels—even if they have to hit some confusing, complex emotional notes to get there.
