''Once Twice Melody'' is the eighth

studio album An album is a collection of audio recordings issued on compact disc (CD), Phonograph record, vinyl, audio tape, or another medium such as Digital distribution#Music, digital distribution. Albums of recorded sound were developed in the early ...

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 ...

, released on February 18, 2022. It is a

double album A double album (or double record) is an audio album that spans two units of the primary medium in which it is sold, typically either records or compact disc. A double album is usually, though not always, released as such because the recording i ...

of 18 songs, presented in four chapters.

Release

The first chapter was released on November 10, 2021, the second on December 8, 2021, and the third on January 19, 2022. "Hurts to Love" was released as a standalone single on February 14, 2022, to coincide with

Valentine's Day Valentine's Day, also called Saint Valentine's Day or the Feast of Saint Valentine, is celebrated annually on February 14. It originated as a Christian feast day honoring one or two early Christian martyrs named Saint Valentine and, throu ...

. ''Once Twice Melody'' was released in full, 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 ...

, on February 18, 2022.

Critical reception

''Once Twice Melody'' was released to universal acclaim 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 normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the album received an

average In ordinary language, an average is a single number taken as representative of a list of numbers, usually the sum of the numbers divided by how many numbers are in the list (the arithmetic mean). For example, the average of the numbers 2, 3, 4, 7, ...

score of 84, based on 21 reviews, which indicates "universal acclaim". Aggregator

AnyDecentMusic? AnyDecentMusic? is a website that collates album reviews from magazines, websites, and newspapers. Primarily focused on popular music – covering rock, pop, electronic, dance, folk, country, roots, hip-hop, R&B, and rap – albums are adjudg ...

gave it 7.8 out of 10, based on their assessment of the critical consensus. Reviewing the album for

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 ...

, Heather Phares claimed that, "Though ''Once Twice Melody'' is unapologetically lush even by Beach House's standards, the duo uses space creatively to express the beauty in sadness." Stevie Chick of ''

Mojo Mojo may refer to: * Mojo (African-American culture), a magical charm bag used in voodoo Arts, entertainment and media Film and television * MOJO HD, an American television network * ''Mojo'' (play), by Jez Butterworth, made into a 1997 film * ' ...

'' called it the band's "grandest vision yet", praising the "impassive beauty" of Legrand's vocals and comparing them to "'

O Superman "O Superman", also known as "O Superman (For Massenet)", is a 1981 song by performance artist and musician Laurie Anderson. The song became a surprise hit in the United Kingdom after it was championed by DJ John Peel, rising to #2 on the UK Single ...

'-era

Laurie Anderson Laurel Philips Anderson (born June 5, 1947), known as Laurie Anderson, is an American avant-garde artist, composer, musician, and film director whose work spans performance art, pop music, and multimedia projects. Initially trained in violin and ...

serenades, or as if someone programmed AI to sing like

Judee Sill Judith Lynne Sill (October 7, 1944 – November 23, 1979) was an American singer and songwriter. The first artist signed to David Geffen's Asylum label, she released two albums on Asylum and partially completed a third album before dying of a d ...

." Jason Anderson of ''

Uncut Uncut may refer to: * ''Uncut'' (film), a 1997 Canadian docudrama film by John Greyson about censorship * ''Uncut'' (magazine), a monthly British magazine with a focus on music, which began publishing in May 1997 * '' BET: Uncut'', a Black Enter ...

'' commended the "stunning" cinematic quality of the first chapter and praised the album's "unexpected elements" for deftly counterbalancing the "grandeur and glamour from becoming sickly sweet." ''Uncut'' concluded that the album's "greatness lies not in its hugeness - it's in the duo's ability to create music that possesses the same intimacy regardless of its scope."

Track listing

Personnel

– arrangement, performance; production, engineering; art direction **

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 ** James Barone * James Barone – live drums (writing, performance) * Michael Scally – guitar solo (3) * Wheatie Mattiasich – additional vocals (9) * Rebecca Morrin – additional vocals (9) * David Campbell – live strings arrangement * Nick Tveitbakk – live drums engineering (1, 2, 4, 5, 8, 10, 12–14, 18) * Trevor Spencer – live drums engineering (2–4, 6–9, 11), mixing (5, 11) * Gabe Burch – live strings engineering * Travis Warner – live strings engineering * Johnny Morgan – assistant live drums engineering (2–4, 6–9, 11) *

Alan Moulder Alan Moulder (born 11 June 1959) is an English record producer, mixing engineer, and audio engineer. Early life Moulder was born on 11 June 1959 in Boston, Lincolnshire. He was educated at Boston Grammar School. He had an interest in music from ...

– mixing (1–4, 6–8, 10, 12, 16, 18) * Caesar Edmunds – mixing (9, 13, 15, 17) *

Dave Fridmann David Lawrence Fridmann is an American record producer and musician. Career From 1990 onwards he co-produced most releases by Mercury Rev and The Flaming Lips. Other bands he has worked with include Weezer, Saxon Shore, Neon Indian, Wolf Gang, ...

– mixing (14) * Mike Fridmann – assistant mixing (14) *

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 * Steve Fallone – mastering * Jeff Kleinsmith – art direction, design * Nicholas Law – inside heart art

Charts

References

{{Authority control 2022 albums Beach House albums Sub Pop albums Dream pop albums