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Beach House
Teen Dream
Campus Correspondent CD Review by Alyssa Vincent,
North Central College
Beach House knows how to make beautiful, ethereal music. However, with two fantastic albums of just that kind of music behind the duo, it’s safe to say that a change was needed in order to keep current fans engaged and entice a new base of listeners.
Enter Teen Dream. While it’s certainly not a poppy album, it’s far more accessible than either of their previous albums. It’s difficult to describe what this duo has been able to do on the album, simply because they’ve made the transition from ambient noise to Beach Boys-influenced sounds so seamlessly. There is not a weak track on this album. The opening song “Zebra” features transcendent “oohs” and “ahhs” over Victoria Legrand’s base vocals, yet the simple guitar and even simpler drum beat ground the track and give it a level of interest that it may have otherwise lacked.
The best part of the group’s new, slightly catchier sound is that the tempo changes make the lyrics stand out all the more, which are one of the record’s strongest suits. All of these songs are deeply emotional and verge on cathartic. “Take Care” is a stellar example of this. The lyrics in the chorus aren’t complex — “I’ll take care of you/if you ask me to…” — but the swelling instrumentation that accompanies it drives home the gravity of that lovely statement.
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