Under the boardwalk

File this under, hazy, gauzy, slo-mo dream pop, like Beach House in the first couple of albums or like Speck Mountain pretty much any time. the only weird thing is that the record is on Stone's Throw, which, am I confused again, didn't that used to be sort of an alternative hip hop label?

Boardwalk shares with Beach House a kind of ocean-vacation vibe, a drone-y, diffuse organ-based sound, soft, caressing female vocals and a reliance on drum machines for rhythms. (Remember when Beach House used to tour with a boom box?) They are also a male-female duo, the singer Amber Quintero, the arranger/player Mike Edge made some of his own equipment. So, yeah, very pretty...hope they don't get all ripped up and tossed out to sea in hurricane season...try for yourself.

More Beach House...but nothing very new

Why do you need Bloom if you've already got Teen Dream? Beats me, unless you're a committed more-is-better type.

Beach House
Bloom
Sub Pop

Beach House’s last album, Teen Dream, represented a startling advance. The band’s gauzy sound gained a solid footing in live drums. Singer Victoria Legrand’s voice turned deeper, more sensual and nuanced, little curves in the notes suggesting earthier genres like soul and R&B. The glittering surfaces of partner Alex Scally’s guitar lines hinted, somehow, at deeper, stranger currents underneath. The whole thing seemed realer, more grounded, more weighted with significance than its pretty predecessors, though still imbued with a drifting, codeine strangeness.

Bloom, the band’s fourth full-length, will be fine with listeners looking for more of the same.

More

Beach House and Good Shoes

I've been kind of busy lately and haven't been very disciplined about posting, but I do have a couple of reviews up at Dusted this week.

Beach House's third, Teen Dream, is one of my favorites so far this year, which surprised me, because I liked but never loved their first two albums. This one is a lot more substantial, more pop and more driven by rhythm, and what can I say? I like that stuff.

Here's a link to the review

and Sub Pop is sharing an MP3 of "Norway"

I also have a slightly less enamored review of the new Good Shoes, No Hope, No Future, which is just not as good as the first one. It's at Dusted, too, check it out here.

And, okay, here's a thing. Pazz & Jop came out this week and for the first time ever, I don't have a single album that no one else voted for. (I've got two where there was only one other voter, and one three, so it's not like it's getting crowded.)

Surprised me how high Neko placed...good album, great singer, but I had no idea that she was as hype-y as Animal Collective/Dirty Projectors/Grizzly Bear, etc.

Albums

Singles

My ballot