Last night I traveled to Cambridge to see Maryland duo Beach House play upstairs at The Middle East. Touring on their second album "Devotion" with San Francisco based band Papercuts, I put myself in the midst of the hippie facet of indie -scene sub-culture. If you have never heard Beach House before (I recommend their self-titled debut album), imagine Nico meets some British shoe gaze and perhaps a bottle of cough syrup. Their sound is beautiful yet chilling. Eerie keyboards align with twangy guitars and electronic drum beats to create something special. Live, Victoria Legrand's vocals are a distant second to the albums and she annunciates certain words to almost an annoyance if you pay attention close enough. For instance stairs becomes "sta-yerrrs" and who cares is a similar "who ca-yerrs". Musically they play live with a drummer which adds more texture to their basic sound. Guitarist Alex Scally dressed in a vintage white suit looked the most alive on the stage, moving almost waltz-like as he played his guitar. Although this may sound like a fairly negative review I enjoyed myself and they are really not horrible live. Legrand was very responsive to the tiny crowd and even made jokes about breaking the stage with her high heels. Opening band, Papercuts create a similar shoegaze like sound which made me want to listen to both bands from my bed with headphones on. Although I wouldn't recommend Beach House live I seriously recommend giving their first album a listen. You can find them here:or
3 comments:
I appreciate this review. I have heard that "devotion" is a bit of a bore, but like you, I've heard very good things about their first album.
I do know Mr. Agnew likes "devotion," at least at last discussion.
Yeah, Matt, they like didn't progress on the second album (rock innuendo that really doesn't float my boat). My general concensus is that the two had such a hit on their hands with the self titled debut that the second album has a "hey let's do a little of that shit we did last time and add more scary keyboards." But in general it works but like you say: it's a bit of a bore and makes me sleepy. I don't trust many Pitchforkmedia shit but they are by far the better of most of the new string of low-fi shit making its way around the USA, USA! All I'm saying if first album.
I can send you the first album if you have a live journal. Let me know.
Alex
Alex --
I agree, I don't think they progressed at all with Devotion in terms of sounds, modes of writing. It just got more streamlined. I think the writing is much clearer; they are seeing through ideas thoroughly. I am astounded by Devotion where I am pleasantly surprised with the s/t.
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