Beach House – Devotion[Carpark; 26/02/2008]
Beach House is a band that’s not the easiest to pin down. The aloofness their music portrays begs questions about the whole set-up. There will be undoubted appeal to their latest album, Devotion, which conveys a lush sensibility of vocal music and a bare minimum of everything else. Some may pass it off as The Besnard Lakes without the cathartics but, to be honest, the two bands are coming and going from two different angels.
Devotion isn’t captivating enough to grab your undivided attention, so it’s be wise to experience this 44 minutes of sound with ear phones in tact. ‘Wedding Bell’ sets the scene with singer, Victoria Legrand, delivering lyrics that seem, like the rest of the album, very close to home and perhaps referencing to her band mate Alex Scally. The other main highlight lies within the dreamy cluster that is ‘Turtle Island’, with Langrand’s octave shifts the prominent force.
In most cases, dream-pop is a blissfully sound that often fills over the cracks of darkness. With Beach House, they somehow manage to create their darkness with brooding lo-fi undertones, while still able to preserve the dreaminess. Although, at times, Devotion is an irresolute piece, there are subtle notions that this is a growing quality that, with time, could become a better listen. If one thing’s for sure, a band that was once hard to pinpoint are starting to get their message across.
By Simon K
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