''Depression Cherry'' is the fifth studio album by the 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 to ...

. It was co-produced by the group and

Chris Coady Chris Coady (born June 5, 1978) is an American record producer and mixing engineer who is best known for his work with Yeah Yeah Yeahs, TV on the Radio, Deadbeat Darling, Grizzly Bear, Beach House, Blonde Redhead and others. Since moving to New Y ...

, and was released on August 28, 2015, by

Sub Pop Sub Pop is a record label founded in 1986 by Bruce Pavitt and Jonathan Poneman. Sub Pop achieved fame in the early 1990s for signing Seattle bands such as Nirvana, Soundgarden, and Mudhoney, central players in the grunge movement. They are often ...

in the US,

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 Twi ...

in Europe,

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,

Hostess Entertainment , DBA Unlimited, is a Japanese independent music company that represents Western alternative artists and labels in Japan, such as the Beggars Group ( 4AD/ XL/Matador/ Rough Trade), Domino Records, V2 Records, Brassland, Virgin Music Label & A ...

in Japan and Arts & Crafts in Mexico. The album was recorded at

Studio in the Country Studio in the Country is a recording studio located at 21443 Hwy 436 in Washington Parish, Louisiana. The studio has been in operation since 1972. It was conceived and originally owned by recording engineer William S. "Bleu" Evans. It sits on ...

Bogalusa, Louisiana Bogalusa is a city in Washington Parish, Louisiana, United States. The population was 12,232 at the 2010 United States Census, 2010 census. In th2020 censusthe city, town, place equivalent reported a population of 10,659. It is the principal city ...

, from November 2014 to January 2015. Reacting to their dissatisfaction with using live drums on tour to play songs from their previous album, ''

Bloom Bloom or blooming may refer to: Science and technology Biology * Bloom, one or more flowers on a flowering plant * Algal bloom, a rapid increase or accumulation in the population of algae in an aquatic system * Jellyfish bloom, a collective n ...

'' (2012), for ''Depression Cherry'', the band returned to simpler song

arrangement In music, an arrangement is a musical adaptation of an existing composition. Differences from the original composition may include reharmonization, melodic paraphrasing, orchestration, or formal development. Arranging differs from orches ...

s, similar to those of its first two studio albums. "Sparks" was released as the lead single on July 1. The album received mostly positive reviews from critics. Less than two months after releasing ''Depression Cherry'', Beach House followed it up with its sixth album, '' Thank Your Lucky Stars''.

Background and recording

After Beach House completed touring for their previous record ''

'' (2012), the group took a six-month break. Uncertain about their future, singer/keyboardist

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 ...

said, "I didn't feel creative at all... I just thought well, maybe I'll never have another musical idea." She added, "I just personally felt I needed a couple of months of just not doing anything, I didn't have thoughts." Legrand found herself frustrated and limited creatively by the presence of a live drum set on tour to play ''Bloom''s songs because of "the noise it creates and how much space it fills". Guitarist

Alex Scally Alex Kristian Scally (born July 15, 1982) is an American multi-instrumentalist and songwriter. He is known as the co-writer, guitarist and backing vocalist of the dream pop duo Beach House, with whom he has recorded eight studio albums. Early l ...

concurred, saying, "There was a transparent feeling,

he songs He or HE may refer to: Language * He (pronoun), an English pronoun * He (kana), the romanization of the Japanese kana へ * He (letter), the fifth letter of many Semitic alphabets * He (Cyrillic), a letter of the Cyrillic script called ''He'' ...

didn't feel as nuanced." Though some of ''Depression Cherry''s musical ideas originated from 2012, Beach House wrote the majority of the record between autumn 2013 and 2014; "10:37" was one of the first songs to be written during this period. The album was recorded at

over two months, from November 2014 to January 2015. It was co-produced by

, who worked on the band's previous two records, ''

Teen Dream Adolescence () is a transitional stage of Developmental biology, physical and psychological Human development (biology), development that generally occurs during the period from puberty to adulthood (typically corresponding to the age of majo ...

'' (2010) and ''Bloom''. Prior to joining the band in the studio, they sent him phone recordings of some of their in-progress songs. For the song "Days of Candy", they hired eight singers from

Pearl River Community College Pearl River Community College is a public community college in Poplarville, Mississippi. It was founded as Pearl River County Agricultural High School in 1909 and became the first junior college in Mississippi in 1921. Residents of Hancock, F ...

to create a 24-part choir. After completing that song and "Levitation", the band knew they had the album's closing and opening tracks, respectively, and considered the record completed. The album was mixed at

Sunset Sound Sunset, also known as sundown, is the daily disappearance of the Sun below the horizon due to Earth's rotation. As viewed from everywhere on Earth (except the North and South poles), the equinox Sun sets due west at the moment of both the spring ...

Hollywood Hollywood usually refers to: * Hollywood, Los Angeles, a neighborhood in California * Hollywood, a metonym for the cinema of the United States Hollywood may also refer to: Places United States * Hollywood District (disambiguation) * Hollywood, ...

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

, except "Beyond Love", which was mixed at

Sonic Ranch Sonic Ranch, in the border town of Tornillo, Texas, is the world's largest residential recording studio complex. There are five studios designed by Vincent Van Haaff on a pecan orchard, which borders the Rio Grande and Mexico. Located east of ...

Tornillo, Texas Tornillo ( ) is a census-designated place (CDP) and border town in El Paso County, Texas, El Paso County, Texas, United States. The population was 1,568 at the 2010 United States Census, 2010 census. It is part of the El Paso, Texas, El Paso El Pas ...

Promotion and release

On May 26, 2015, Beach House announced ''Depression Cherry'' along with tour dates supporting the album. According to the band, the album is a return to the simpler style of

from their first two albums. In a press release on the

website, the group said: Vinyl and compact disc copies of the album feature a cover lined with red

velvet Weave details visible on a purple-colored velvet fabric Velvet is a type of woven tufted fabric in which the cut threads are evenly distributed, with a short pile, giving it a distinctive soft feel. By extension, the word ''velvety'' means ...

. A limited edition "Loser Edition" of the album was released on clear vinyl record. On July 1, 2015, Beach House released the album's lead single, "Sparks". On August 19, nine days before the release of ''Depression Cherry'',

NPR Music NPR Music is a project of National Public Radio, an American privately and publicly funded non-profit membership media organization, that launched in November 2007 to present public radio music programming and original editorial content for music ...

made a

stream A stream is a continuous body of water, body of surface water Current (stream), flowing within the stream bed, bed and bank (geography), banks of a channel (geography), channel. Depending on its location or certain characteristics, a stream ...

of the album available online.

Commercial performance

''Depression Cherry'' debuted at number eight on the ''Billboard'' 200, with 27,000 copies sold in its first week.

Reception

''Depression Cherry'' received mostly positive reviews from contemporary 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

weighted mean The weighted arithmetic mean is similar to an ordinary arithmetic mean (the most common type of average), except that instead of each of the data points contributing equally to the final average, some data points contribute more than others. The ...

rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the album received an average score of 76, based on 34 reviews, which indicates "generally favorable reviews".

Accolades

Track listing

All lyrics written by

; all music composed and arranged by

Personnel

Credits adapted from the liner notes of ''Depression Cherry''. Beach House *

Additional musicians * Graham Hill – live drums and percussion on all tracks except "Sparks" and "PPP" * Chris Bear – live drums on "Sparks" and "PPP" * Voice/choir majors at

– vocal chorus on "Days of Candy" **Lane Stewart **Lydia Howard **Lindsey Strahan **Mallory Cumberland **Ethan Martin **Jacob Cochran **LaDona Tyson – organization **Archie Rawls – organization Production * Beach House – production, mixing *

– production, mixing on all tracks except "Beyond Love" * David Tolomei – engineering * Jay Wesley – assistant engineering * Shane Wesley – "all around dude" * Morgan Stratton – assistant engineering * Manuel Calderon – mixing on "Beyond Love" *

Greg Calbi Gregory Calbi (born April 3, 1949) is an American mastering engineer at Sterling Sound, New Jersey. Biography Greg Calbi was born on April 3, 1949, in Yonkers, New York, and raised in Bayside, Queens, New York. He graduated in 1966 from Bisho ...

– mastering Artwork * Brian Roettinger – design * Beach House – photography

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

References

{{Authority control 2015 albums Beach House albums Sub Pop albums Albums produced by Chris Coady Albums recorded at Studio in the Country