2022 - USA
Dream Pop, Neo-Psychedelia, Indietronica
Anchored in space and time, while remaining interstitial.
Released over four months, between November 2021 and February 2022, one chapter after the other, we discovered their new project little by little. Just like a TV show slowly unfolding its story, Beach House turned their album into a regular rendezvous strengthening our relationship to their music. Between every chapter, we could go back again and again to the music they released while waiting for the next one. Each of us had our favourite songs and some others we didn’t come back to often, creating our own homemade relationship with an album that wasn’t even out yet. This way, when the final chapter was released on February 18th , we already knew three chapters out of four. It was all familiar. And the final trip across the entire album became heady. The hype grew slowly, enabling everyone to listen to the album the way they wanted, all at once in February, on repeat since November, or with only one single listening each month. Once Twice Melody isn’t a typical album, it’s a tiny jewellery case containing the whole universe. You can open it in many different ways, but every times your skin will be covered with golden raindrops, and a journey of pure enlightenment will begin.
Four months for something that took four years of recording across three different places, on the East Coast in Baltimore, their hometown, on the West Coast in Los Angeles and in Cannon Falls, Minnesota. It’s now impossible not to mention Big Thief who went through a similar process with their latest album, recording it in several places across the United-States. Where the length allowed Big Thief to craft a paragon of folk music while pushing the genre forward, Beach House does the same with dream pop. The main difference being that Big Thief’s album was about earthly wanderings with some celestial detours, and Once Twice Melody is about cosmic elation with some terrestrial observations. Never ending, always fading, Beach House’s music is made of stardust and strings, each song perfectly placed, answering each other, like Masquerade and Illusions of Forever, or ESP and New Romance, four songs that could exchange their titles. The last one mentioned is the catchiest of them all, once you’ve heard it, you won’t be able to take the chorus of your head : “Last night I’m messing up / Now I feel like dressing up / (I - L(ove) - Y(ou) - S(o) - F(ucking) - M(uch)”. And one of the most beautiful too. An interstellar love story that resonates with the last song Modern Love Stories, both tales of people launching themselves into the night and its emotions, full of dreamy visuals. Sounds, words, images, everything in this song takes you from feeling heartbroken to your rebirth.
Asking what Once Twice Melody is about, or what dream pop is about in general, is a wrong question. You should rather ask what does dream pop fill you up with ? Written like a succession of haikus, « Swans on a starry lake / Hearts that were made to break / Tears through a white lace veil / Pink funeral », majestic songs like Pink Funeral, Masquerade, or Another Round enwraps us in a dulcet atmosphere where Victoria Legrand’s tone and Alex Scally’s experimentations allow us to find solace. « The end is the beginning / Beginning to an ending » as Legrand sings on the final track Modern Love Stories, because people appear and leave your life the same way you appear and leave the universe, ‘till someone else is born and someone else is dead, whether it’s a flower, a star or a human being. That feeling is particularly present on two songs. The first one is probably one of the greatest they ever wrote, Superstar. If my love for this song was already stellar, seeing it live increased it even more. Because it began in a very quiet manner, almost a cappella. And with its slow build-up ending in pure sonic euphoria, it almost felt like Beach House, bar after bar, was creating the song in front of your eyes, making it sound like a forever endless flow. The same thing happened with the second song, Over and Over. This is the kind of song that only ends because life isn’t only made in order to listen to one single song for eternity. It’s a state of hypnosis that makes us confuse the limits of your body to turn you into a levitating spirit.
Listening to dream pop could sometimes be summarized by the act of stargazing. You’re looking at a light you cannot reach, far from Earth, and this light attracts you ‘till you start floating slightly above Earth. That’s dream pop. But here Beach House questions this light coming from the past, noticing how past, present and future interlace. They consider time through a different lens. It’s not the stars but us. We are made of time, carrying memories, fantasising our future, looking at old pictures, questioning our feelings for loved-ones. Once Twice Melody isn’t about stargazing, it’s about earthgazing, you are the star, and you look at life from above. In this familiar world, we find enough peace of mind to get rid of all anxieties. Half asleep, there’s only us and our calm breath in the middle of a borderless universe Beach House made safe. Self-produced, this is Beach House’s realm at its core. And it sounds like a masterwork. Of course there is no brutal shapeshift in their sound, but that’s exactly what makes their uniqueness. The pair keeps evolving within their own frame. And they know everything about it, how it sounds, how it looks like, how to expand it, their own little shrine. Alongside their newfound sounds, we go aboard a candescent spaceship to observe the little threads that structure our world. And the view is strikingly poignant.
Released over four months, between November 2021 and February 2022, one chapter after the other, we discovered their new project little by little. Just like a TV show slowly unfolding its story, Beach House turned their album into a regular rendezvous strengthening our relationship to their music. Between every chapter, we could go back again and again to the music they released while waiting for the next one. Each of us had our favourite songs and some others we didn’t come back to often, creating our own homemade relationship with an album that wasn’t even out yet. This way, when the final chapter was released on February 18th , we already knew three chapters out of four. It was all familiar. And the final trip across the entire album became heady. The hype grew slowly, enabling everyone to listen to the album the way they wanted, all at once in February, on repeat since November, or with only one single listening each month. Once Twice Melody isn’t a typical album, it’s a tiny jewellery case containing the whole universe. You can open it in many different ways, but every times your skin will be covered with golden raindrops, and a journey of pure enlightenment will begin.
Four months for something that took four years of recording across three different places, on the East Coast in Baltimore, their hometown, on the West Coast in Los Angeles and in Cannon Falls, Minnesota. It’s now impossible not to mention Big Thief who went through a similar process with their latest album, recording it in several places across the United-States. Where the length allowed Big Thief to craft a paragon of folk music while pushing the genre forward, Beach House does the same with dream pop. The main difference being that Big Thief’s album was about earthly wanderings with some celestial detours, and Once Twice Melody is about cosmic elation with some terrestrial observations. Never ending, always fading, Beach House’s music is made of stardust and strings, each song perfectly placed, answering each other, like Masquerade and Illusions of Forever, or ESP and New Romance, four songs that could exchange their titles. The last one mentioned is the catchiest of them all, once you’ve heard it, you won’t be able to take the chorus of your head : “Last night I’m messing up / Now I feel like dressing up / (I - L(ove) - Y(ou) - S(o) - F(ucking) - M(uch)”. And one of the most beautiful too. An interstellar love story that resonates with the last song Modern Love Stories, both tales of people launching themselves into the night and its emotions, full of dreamy visuals. Sounds, words, images, everything in this song takes you from feeling heartbroken to your rebirth.
Asking what Once Twice Melody is about, or what dream pop is about in general, is a wrong question. You should rather ask what does dream pop fill you up with ? Written like a succession of haikus, « Swans on a starry lake / Hearts that were made to break / Tears through a white lace veil / Pink funeral », majestic songs like Pink Funeral, Masquerade, or Another Round enwraps us in a dulcet atmosphere where Victoria Legrand’s tone and Alex Scally’s experimentations allow us to find solace. « The end is the beginning / Beginning to an ending » as Legrand sings on the final track Modern Love Stories, because people appear and leave your life the same way you appear and leave the universe, ‘till someone else is born and someone else is dead, whether it’s a flower, a star or a human being. That feeling is particularly present on two songs. The first one is probably one of the greatest they ever wrote, Superstar. If my love for this song was already stellar, seeing it live increased it even more. Because it began in a very quiet manner, almost a cappella. And with its slow build-up ending in pure sonic euphoria, it almost felt like Beach House, bar after bar, was creating the song in front of your eyes, making it sound like a forever endless flow. The same thing happened with the second song, Over and Over. This is the kind of song that only ends because life isn’t only made in order to listen to one single song for eternity. It’s a state of hypnosis that makes us confuse the limits of your body to turn you into a levitating spirit.
Listening to dream pop could sometimes be summarized by the act of stargazing. You’re looking at a light you cannot reach, far from Earth, and this light attracts you ‘till you start floating slightly above Earth. That’s dream pop. But here Beach House questions this light coming from the past, noticing how past, present and future interlace. They consider time through a different lens. It’s not the stars but us. We are made of time, carrying memories, fantasising our future, looking at old pictures, questioning our feelings for loved-ones. Once Twice Melody isn’t about stargazing, it’s about earthgazing, you are the star, and you look at life from above. In this familiar world, we find enough peace of mind to get rid of all anxieties. Half asleep, there’s only us and our calm breath in the middle of a borderless universe Beach House made safe. Self-produced, this is Beach House’s realm at its core. And it sounds like a masterwork. Of course there is no brutal shapeshift in their sound, but that’s exactly what makes their uniqueness. The pair keeps evolving within their own frame. And they know everything about it, how it sounds, how it looks like, how to expand it, their own little shrine. Alongside their newfound sounds, we go aboard a candescent spaceship to observe the little threads that structure our world. And the view is strikingly poignant.