Baltimore Dreamin'

Phew. Not a lot of time for blogging recently, as has been evident.

Anyway...

Back when I lived in Baltimore, I caught dream-pop duo Beach House a handful of times at various intimate locales around the city. The first time, I was pretty blown away. I loved how ethereal and enchanting their music was. I thought singer/keyboard Victoria Legrand had the perfect voice for the music. I thought the lead guitar lines of Alex Scally were elegant and beautifully crafted. And I still think all that. But by about the third time I'd seen them, there weren't any surprises left.

Beach House does one thing: pretty, mid-tempo, indie quasi-ballads. They do that one thing very well, granted, but they basically do one thing. They're kind of like the Michael Cera* of indie music. And I like Michael Cera and I like Beach House, but you know what you're gonna get.

* Though I hear he has some upcoming roles that may break his mold. So let's just be clear that it's Michael Cera circa March 2009. And, in case MC ever reads this, I really do like his work and think he's hilarious.

Teen Dream, which came out at the end of January, is full of good but not amazing songs that are all relatively similar and reminiscent of Beach House's past work. Beach House is at their best when an atmospheric, gliding guitar line is driving the song (like their previous "hit" "Gila") and on tracks like "Better Times" and "Zebra," that's just what happens. But, aside from those two and a few others ... I don't know. For someone who knows BH well, there isn't much truly memorable about this record.

It's a fine line between consistent and monotonous and BH doesn't tread on the latter, but it's close. I mentioned a little in my discussions of Vampire Weekend's Contra how VW tried really hard, and perhaps a little too hard, to create a record that was a different direction from their debut. And, as I said, I liked it and though I think they were too deliberate, I respect their efforts not to rest on their laurels. Teen Dream, as good as it is on its own, doesn't make me excited about Beach House. Only when I'm in a very specific mood am I going to put this record on and I don't think that's going to be too often. Good album? Sure. Their best yet? Yeah, definitely. Anything new on the table? Not really.

However, Teen Dream does work a little better in the context of the complete music scene.

That is...

Teen Dream in the BH catalog < Teen Dream alone < Teen Dream in the grand scheme of things

For as predictable as I might find BH compared to BH, there still isn't a lot of other music that sounds like BH. So, one could argue, if they are still distinct and unique, why change? If it ain't broke...

That said, if I want to hear the BH sound, I can still listen to Devotion. It's not like album doesn't exist anymore, even if if Teen Dream is better, it's basically a better version of Devotion.

I think I'm gonna cut this entry short, as I think I'm a little rusty and this post (ironically) is becoming somewhat redundant itself. Also, I think I resisted writing about this album for so long because my feelings on it were pretty simple: I like it, but I've heard it before.

Back this weekend with some more noise.