CD Review: Teen Dream, Beach House [Sub Pop, 2010]
Ah, the internet. Home of the leaked album. Purveyor of band hype. How I love thee at times like this.
Beach House’s junior release Teen Dream is something I’ve been anticipating for awhile now, and is still slated for release by Sup Pop in North America on Janaury 26, 2010, but is quickly making its rounds as “the” premature leak to listen to in November. Seeing as I’m usually at least one calendar year behind the times on the best new things, the fact that I’m paying attention to Beach House at all should tell you something. They’ve proven they’re the real thing and not just another Pitchfork hype flash-in-the-pan with Teen Dream…the most sadly pure album I’ve heard since Slowdive’s Pygmalion. Back in September, I thought the taste we got of “Used to Be” was as good as it would get. Boy was I ever wrong.
This whole release lives up to its name. It’s bittersweet. It’s so sad it’s happy. It’s pure. It’s sunny. It’s freezing. It takes you to places you’ve never been before and back again. It’s nostalgic, heartfelt, heartbreaking, and majestic all at once. It’s memorable in a way that you can feel the lyrics etching themselves into your brain. It feels like the be all and end all, which is what I remember everything feeling like in high school. But perhaps most importantly, Teen Dream seems to have an overarching story to tell, which was something that was missing from Devotion. As beautiful as it was, Devotion didn’t take me to places I hadn’t been in a long time. It had a slow gorgeous lull but it didn’t feel magnificent. Teen Dream does.
Here are the standout tracks for me:
Silver Soul – Twangy bittersweetness.
Walk in the Park – Took me to places I’d never been before…5 minutes and 17 seconds of pure mammothness and my favourite track off the album. Victoria Legrand leaves your jaw dropped with her husky soul-dripping voice and Alex Scally hits it out of the park with the accompanying ambient/dreamy instrumentals. I’m going to go on record here by saying this is one of my favourite choruses of all time. Beware though, because this is also an easy one to surrender to on repeat. I have already dinged it a whopping 15 times since yesterday afternoon.
Used to Be – Prefer the older version, but the lyrics are still harrowing to me. I guess this is the price we pay when we get demo/unremastered versions, though I sure as hell hope the same catastrophic leak outlash that B. Cox went through with Logos doesn’t happen to Beach House with Teen Dream, because we’d probably lose some of the best songs.
10 Mile Stereo – Another epic heartbeat that has been stuck on repeat.
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One word I neglected to use was lush. This release is overflowing with it.
Another oversight: I neglected to point out is Scally’s organwork. It’s dotted all over pretty much every song. Organs and harpsichords and other plucky piano-like instruments just have not gotten their due since the Renaissance.
theres an edit post button, you know.
so i gather the album takes you places you’ve never been before..like, jane and finch or something.
My old driving school was at Jane and Finch! I grew up not too far from there inbetween Bathurst/Steeles and Dufferin/Steeles.
It takes me a place I never went too far into when I was younger and now I’m too old. You always see those movies about wretched teenage heartbreak but I never really experienced it. Wait, yes I did, but when I was old. When you’re young everything is the end of the world–sometimes I miss that feeling.
yo i really dug the stuff you were saying. i was also deeply touched by teen dream. it’s got a holden caulfield wandering around foggy midnight new york street vibe to it.
and i thought the version of used to be on here was different, your statements confirm this.
and yes, walk in the park was also a song i gravitated to. could it be their next apple orchard or gila?
oh and i think victoria does most the organ work, though alex does a little.
Ben: Yeah..I got a definite “wandering” vibe out of the album too. I’m glad you liked it and that the leak is generating a lot of positive buzz–thanks for confirming that the talented Ms. Legrand does the organ work.
Lyrically, this album is mind-blowing even though about 40% of the words seem to be muddled to me. Better Times speaks to me. I’m waist-deep in the album now and unearthing secondary songs I’m loving too..
“Running around because you put yourself up and you made her cry and the one that you love is gone / How much longer can you play with fire before you turn into a liar?”
Walk in the park is a wonderful song.
[...] I could cheat to include: Beach House – Teen Dream (slated for release in January 2010; leaked in [...]