Beach House’s output used to be quite continuous – five records in the ten years of the band’s existence, an average of a new record every two years. Hence, the fact that »Thank Your Lucky Stars« is their second record in only a few months, is as atypical as it is enjoyable. Especially, since these nine songs don’t just function as a second helping to »Depression Cherry« from the end of August, even though they were recorded in the same session. Instead, they show Beach House from a different angle. Well, of course, Alex Scally and Victoria Lengrand still use the typical tools for their trademark dream-pop, consisting of vintage-synthies, clear guitar-arpeggios, unobtrusive percussions and Legrand’s fading vocals. But this time, they evoke an even darker, even more melancholic (yet more grounded) atmosphere. »One Thing«, for example, starts out with distorted guitar-rumbling; the organ in »Elegy To The Void« sounds like the soundtrack to a funeral, and all the vocals have less of an echo than usually. Their previous romanticism has made room for a tender kind of despair, as if the Beach House as a place of imagination is beginning to collect dust, as if it’s raining through the roof. And even though »Thank Your Lucky Stars« doesn’t quite live up to the band’s first two records, it’s still more multi-faceted than the rest of the duo’s output.
Deafheaven
Lonely People With Power
Roadrunner