''Beach House'' is the debut studio album by American
dream pop
Dream pop (also typeset as dreampop) is a subgenre of alternative rock and neo-psychedelia that emphasizes atmosphere and sonic texture as much as pop melody. Common characteristics include breathy vocals, dense productions, and effects such as ...
duo
Beach House
Beach House is an American musical duo formed in Baltimore, Maryland in 2004. The band consists of Victoria Legrand (vocals, keyboards) and Alex Scally (guitar, keyboard, backing vocals).
Their self-titled debut album was released in 2006 t ...
. It was released on October 3, 2006, by
Carpark Records in North America,
Bella Union
Bella Union is a British independent record label founded in 1997 by Simon Raymonde and Robin Guthrie of Cocteau Twins. It is now run solely by Raymonde.
History
After releasing records with 4AD for a large part of their career, Cocteau Twin ...
in Europe, and
Mistletone Records
Mistletone is an Australian independent record label, tour promoter, booking agency and publicity company founded in 2006 by Ash and Sophie Miles.
Label roster Current
* Avey Tare
* Bachelorette
* The Bats
* Beach House
* Cash Savage and the L ...
in Australia. The album received mostly positive reviews from music critics.
The album had a remastered reissue in 2010 by HeartBreakBeat Records with a run limited to 1,000 copies on black
vinyl
Vinyl may refer to:
Chemistry
* Polyvinyl chloride (PVC), a particular vinyl polymer
* Vinyl cation, a type of carbocation
* Vinyl group, a broad class of organic molecules in chemistry
* Vinyl polymer, a group of polymers derived from vinyl m ...
. In 2012, a pressing on special edition white vinyl was released through
Bella Union
Bella Union is a British independent record label founded in 1997 by Simon Raymonde and Robin Guthrie of Cocteau Twins. It is now run solely by Raymonde.
History
After releasing records with 4AD for a large part of their career, Cocteau Twin ...
. In 2015, the band
self-released
Self-publishing is the publication of media by its author at their own cost, without the involvement of a publisher. The term usually refers to written media, such as books and magazines, either as an ebook or as a physical copy using POD (pr ...
a white
cassette
Cassette may refer to:
Technology
* Cassette tape (or ''musicassette'', ''audio cassette'', ''cassette tape'', or ''tape''), a worldwide standard for analog audio recording and playback
** Cassette single (or "Cassingle"), a music single in th ...
during the
Depression Cherry
''Depression Cherry'' is the fifth studio album by the American dream pop duo Beach House. It was co-produced by the group and Chris Coady, and was released on August 28, 2015, by Sub Pop in the US, Bella Union in Europe, Mistletone Records in Au ...
tour. As of April 2012 ''Beach House'' has sold 24,000 copies in United States according to
Nielsen Soundscan
Luminate (formerly Nielsen SoundScan, Nielsen Music Products, and MRC Data) is a provider of music sales data. Established by Mike Fine and Mike Shalett in 1991, data is collected weekly and made available every Sunday (for albums sales) and eve ...
.
The album was recorded on a
4-track over a two-day period in Scally's basement.
Composition
The album has been described as an
indie pop
Indie pop (also typeset as indie-pop or indiepop) is a music genre and subculture that combines guitar pop with DIY ethic in opposition to the style and tone of mainstream pop music. It originated from British post-punk in the late 1970s and sub ...
record with "
shoegazer
Shoegaze (originally called shoegazing and sometimes conflated with "dream pop") is a subgenre of indie and alternative rock characterized by its ethereal mixture of obscured vocals, guitar distortion and effects, feedback, and overwhelming volu ...
textures".
''Almost Cool'' said the band created an album of "
lo-fi
Lo-fi (also typeset as lofi or low-fi; short for low fidelity) is a music or production quality in which elements usually regarded as imperfections in the context of a recording or performance are present, sometimes as a deliberate choice. The ...
, hazy summer
dream pop
Dream pop (also typeset as dreampop) is a subgenre of alternative rock and neo-psychedelia that emphasizes atmosphere and sonic texture as much as pop melody. Common characteristics include breathy vocals, dense productions, and effects such as ...
".
The opening track, "Saltwater", is a lazy, drifting song built on scratchy, low-key synthetic beats that got "flooded with softly spreading guitar distortion and incandescent organ".
"Master Of None" has a "more radiant synths and dreamy guitar rolling out over a slightly
funk
Funk is a music genre that originated in African American communities in the mid-1960s when musicians created a rhythmic, danceable new form of music through a mixture of various music genres that were popular among African Americans in the m ...
ier rhythm."
"Auburn And Ivory" is a siren-song of 60's
psychedelia
Psychedelia refers to the psychedelic subculture of the 1960s and the psychedelic experience. This includes psychedelic art, psychedelic music and style of dress during that era. This was primarily generated by people who used psychedelic ...
and
classical influences that's a duller, more stoney take on
The Rolling Stones
The Rolling Stones are an English rock band formed in London in 1962. Active for six decades, they are one of the most popular and enduring bands of the rock era. In the early 1960s, the Rolling Stones pioneered the gritty, rhythmically d ...
' "
Play With Fire".
"Childhood" is "the most upbeat song on the album, and it's one of the warmest."
Critical reception
The album received mostly positive reviews from music critics. At
Metacritic
Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...
, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the album received an average score of 73, based on 14 reviews, indicating "generally favorable reviews".
''
Pitchfork
A pitchfork (also a hay fork) is an agricultural tool with a long handle and two to five tines used to lift and pitch or throw loose material, such as hay, straw, manure, or leaves.
The term is also applied colloquially, but inaccurately, to th ...
'' said the album evoked a "recipe of fairground waltzes, ghosted lullabies, and woodland hymnals" and compared the work of the duo to
Mazzy Star
Mazzy Star is an American alternative rock band formed in 1988 in Santa Monica, California, from remnants of the group Opal. Founding member David Roback's friend Hope Sandoval became the group's vocalist when Kendra Smith left Opal.
Mazzy St ...
,
Spiritualized
Spiritualized (stylised as Spiritualized®) are an English rock band formed in 1990 in Rugby, Warwickshire, by Jason Pierce (often known as J. Spaceman), formerly of Spacemen 3. After several line up-changes, in 1999, the band centered on Pierc ...
and
Slowdive
Slowdive is a British rock band that formed in Reading, Berkshire, in 1989. The band consists of Rachel Goswell on vocals and guitar, Neil Halstead on vocals and guitar, Christian Savill on guitar, Nick Chaplin on bass and Simon Scott on d ...
.
AllMusic
AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the databas ...
said the album is "one of the most mystical
indie-pop
Indie pop (also typeset as indie-pop or indiepop) is a music genre and subculture that combines guitar pop with DIY ethic in opposition to the style and tone of mainstream pop music. It originated from British post-punk in the late 1970s and su ...
surprises to arrive in 2006."
Giving the album a positive review, ''
LAS Magazine
''LAS Magazine'', also known as ''Lost At Sea'' or ''LostAtSea.net'', is a daily online magazine founded in 1998 by Eric J Herboth. An online social group for the magazine list it in the "Entertainment & Arts - Online Media" category with a descr ...
'' said the album was "made for gray days indoors or late August afternoons spent lying in golden fields staring at blue skies," while comparing it to
Yo La Tengo
Yo La Tengo (YLT; Spanish for "I have her") is an American indie rock band formed in Hoboken, New Jersey, in 1984. Since 1992, the lineup has consisted of Ira Kaplan (guitars, piano, vocals), Georgia Hubley (drums, piano, vocals), and James McNew ...
's album ''
And Then Nothing Turned Itself Inside-Out
''And Then Nothing Turned Itself Inside-Out'' is the ninth studio album by American indie rock band Yo La Tengo, released on February 22, 2000, by Matador Records. The album received positive reviews from critics.
Recording and release
''And T ...
.''
''Almost Cool'' said "it sounds like a late summer album, but it's just dark enough that I bet it will sound nice looking out the window to a dusting of snow on the ground as well."
''Dusted Magazine'' said it is "a dream of an album." ''Delusions of Adequacy'' said the album "is the perfect accompaniment for an introspective day, or night, of watching the globules of a lava lamp slowly float and sink."
Accolades
The album was included at number sixteen in ''
Pitchfork
A pitchfork (also a hay fork) is an agricultural tool with a long handle and two to five tines used to lift and pitch or throw loose material, such as hay, straw, manure, or leaves.
The term is also applied colloquially, but inaccurately, to th ...
''s list of the top 50 albums of 2006.
Controversy
The band adapted "Snowdon Song" by 1970s
folk
Folk or Folks may refer to:
Sociology
*Nation
*People
* Folklore
** Folk art
** Folk dance
** Folk hero
** Folk music
*** Folk metal
*** Folk punk
*** Folk rock
** Folk religion
* Folk taxonomy
Arts, entertainment, and media
* Folk Plus or Fol ...
group
Tony, Caro and John
Tony, Caro and John is a British folk rock, British psychedelic folk trio who recorded the album ''All on the First Day'' in 1972. The threesome took much of their inspiration from the Incredible String Band's eclectic strain of psychedelic fol ...
, changing the key, the time signature, and the lyrics and renaming it "Lovelier Girl" with the trio given no attribution. Four years after the album's release, the trio contacted them. After amicable discussions on copyright, the authorship of the "Lovelier Girl" version of the song is now jointly attributed to Beach House and Tony Doré of the trio.
"So we settled everything with them and they're fine and we're fine. We made sure all the necessary royalties go to them and all that stuff, and they're in the index as the co-writers," Scally says. "We had no idea on our first record that's how that thing worked. You don't know anything when you're just kids in a basement making a record."
In popular culture
The song "Master of None" was sampled by Canadian singer
The Weeknd
Abel Makkonen Tesfaye (born February 16, 1990), known professionally as the Weeknd, is a Canadian singer, songwriter, record producer, and actor. Known for his sonic versatility and dark lyricism, his music explores escapism, Romance (love), ...
for his song "The Party & The After Party" off his 2011 debut mixtape ''
House of Balloons
''House of Balloons'' is the debut mixtape by Canadian singer the Weeknd. It was released on March 21, 2011, by the artist's own record label XO. The mixtape was released for free on the Weeknd's website and was the subject of increased media d ...
''. The song was also used in the
Netflix
Netflix, Inc. is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service and production company based in Los Gatos, California. Founded in 1997 by Reed Hastings and Marc Randolph in Scotts Valley, California, it offers a fil ...
show
of the same name, as well as featuring in
Miranda July
Miranda July (born Miranda Jennifer Grossinger; February 15, 1974) is an American film director, screenwriter, singer, actress and author. Her body of work includes film, fiction, monologue, digital presentations and live performance art.
She w ...
's 2011 German-American
drama film
In film and television, drama is a category or genre of narrative fiction (or semi-fiction) intended to be more serious than humorous in tone. Drama of this kind is usually qualified with additional terms that specify its particular super-g ...
''
The Future''.
Track listing
Personnel
Beach House
*
Victoria Legrand
Victoria Garance Alixe Legrand (born May 28, 1981) is a French-American musician, best known as the lead vocalist, songwriter and keyboardist of the dream pop duo Beach House.
Early life
Legrand was born in Paris, France, the daughter of painte ...
*
Alex Scally
Production
*Rob Girardi – recording, mixing
*Adam Cooke – recording
*Rusty Santos – mastering
*Liz Flyntz – photography
References
{{Authority control
2006 debut albums
Beach House albums
Carpark Records albums