by Joseph Oscilowski ‘22

Debuting in 2004 and composed of only two people, Beach House finds itself as one of the most popular dream pop bands. The duo of Victoria Legrand as the vocalist and Alex Scally as the instrumentalist and backup vocalist, has over 8.5 million monthly listeners on Spotify. After six years, Beach House has finally provided its hungry fans with a new album.

Titled “Once Twice Melody,” the album consists of 18 tracks over the span of 84 minutes. In an interview with Consequence, the duo stated that the theme of the album is up to listeners’ interpretations, however some central ideas are acceptance, romance, and perfection vs. imperfection. The soft techno and echoey vocals work very well with said themes, giving the feeling of floating in the galaxies.

The album is very peaceful to listen to; Legrand’s vocals are very quiet and gentle, feeling as though she’s singing a lullaby. Throughout the songs, the main instruments used are keyboard, acoustic guitar, bass guitar, organ, and string instruments such as violins. Beach House layers lighter sounding instruments such as keyboard and strings in the foreground of the songs while putting the darker sounding instruments such as the bass as a shadow in the background. This technique, along with the heavy use of reverb to echo the vocals and the instruments, creates celestial sounding melodies.
The lyrics are also very beautiful, though slightly repetitive in each song, and often speak of love in a way that makes fans crave the feelings expressed. Whether that be yearning, contentment, anger or frustration, Legrand’s soft voice manages to scream with emotions, taking the listening experience to the next level.

The only fault of “Once Twice Melody” is its length and the similarity of songs. At almost an hour and a half long, the album feels as though it just keeps going. What makes this even worse is that almost every single song sounds identical, which isn’t a huge issue as this is the exact style that the band is going for–they’re doing their job. However, when sitting and listening to the whole album in one sitting, it becomes very difficult to differentiate between songs and makes time feel as though it’s moving at a slower pace.

While yes, the songs are fairly long themselves and sound pretty similar to each other, the overall experience of the album is enjoyable. Playing this album while on a long car ride, on a walk in shining sunlight, or alone in your room at night–no matter where or what you may be doing this album provides a solid, consistent dream-like feeling.

Grade: B+