Product Description

Feeling lonely tonight? Turn off the TV and lower the lights. Baltimore duo Beach House have returned with their sophomore full length entitled Devotion. Alex Scally and Victoria Legrand have written eleven delicate pop tunes about love, feeling, and, of course, devotion. Their new album is a surefire antidote to the winter blues.

Beach House have developed their craft exponentially since their 2006 self-titled debut. The recording is crisper; the songs are fuller. This is a band that is taking the pop duo format to the limit.

The organs, slide guitars and reverb are still there, but Beach House lay out some new sounds for their newest offering. While on their debut critics made comparisons to early 90s dream popsters like Mazzy Star, Galaxie 500 and Slowdive, on Devotion listeners will also hear the band's longtime admiration for 60s Motown and country folk.

Track Listing

1. Wedding Bell
2. You Came to Me
3. Gila
4. Turtle Island
5. Holy Dances
6. All the Year
7. Heart of Chambers
8. Some Things Last (A Long Time)
9. Astronaut
10. D.A.R.L.I.N.G.
11. Home Again

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #22183 in Music
• Released on: 2008-02-26
• Number of discs: 1

Amazon.com
Nothing much happens on the second album from this Baltimore, Maryland duo, but it all unfolds so beautifully you would be hard-pressed to complain. Using slow-motion rhythms, ghostly vocals and dreamy carnival organs in its attempt to pull together a set of vaporous melodies, the band comes up with a spellbinding collection of songs that in its best moments recalls the hazy wonder of dream-pop predecessors the Velvet Underground and Mazzy Star. Singer Victoria Legrand is the niece of famed soundtrack composer Michel, which could explain why so many of the songs--especially standouts like "D.A.R.L.I.N.G." and "Heart of Chambers"--have such a convincingly cinematic feel. Hopefully, the producers at HBO are listening. --Aidin Vaziri

Album Description
Feeling lonely tonight? Then turn off the TV and lower the lights, for Baltimore duo Beach House have returned with their sophomore full length entitled "Devotion" Alex Scally and Victoria Legrand have written eleven delicate pop songs about love, feelings, and, of course, devotion. Their new album is a sure-fire antidote to the winter blues. Beach House have developed their craft exponentially since their 2006 self-titled debut. The recording is crisper; the songs are fuller. This is a band that is taking the pop duo format to the limit. The organs, slide guitars and reverb are still there, but Beach House lay down some new sounds for their newest offering. While on their debut critics made comparisons to early '90s dream popsters like Mazzy Star, Slowdive and Galaxie 500, on "Devotion" listeners will also hear the band's longtime admiration for '60s Motown and country folk.

Customer Reviews

I want my money back
My experiance with lists is for the most part they can really un-earth some gems.

This was not the case here; sappy and sonicly flat, a real disapointment.

They got me for 14.00 and I hope they save it for some decent recording gear.

Is your heart still mine for sale?
The name of Beach House might imply a certain kind of pop -- sunny, frothy, sort of a Beach Boys vibe.

If so, that name is very deceptive, because their music is none of the above. Hailing from Baltimore, Beach House's second album "Devotion" is more like sleeping in a haunted, jewelled music box -- all ghostly singing, lushly sparkling pop instrumentation and sensually dreamy melodies.

"Wedding Bell" spins itself a stately, rippling organ'n'grimy riffs framework, with Victoria Legrand's pretty, eerie voice singing distantly, "You're ringing the only wedding bell/and we're swimming the seas we know so well... I tried to stay in line in our bed/in our heads/Oh, but your wish is my command..." It's very catchy in a neo-Victorian shoegazer way, although much catchier than anything that follows.

But things get far eerier in "You Came to Me," a shimmering ghostly pop ballad punctuated by sweeps of satiny keyboard and timpani. That style carries over into the lilting, swirling sound of "Gila," ruled by a truly exquisite organ melody. And not many singers could sing the name of a lizard and actually sound serious.

And those songs set the tone for much of the album -- ethereal organ laments, shimmering little pop tunes strung with tambourine and swirling guitar, sparkling melodies with spacey carnival synth, tinkly soaring ballads, and so forth. But it ends as catchily -- if more alluringly -- as it started, with the warm, wobbling "Home Again." It sounds exactly as the title would imply.

If I had to describe the particular sound of Beach House, I'd have to say it sounds like an American Nico... fronting the musical lovechild of Mazzy Star and Goldfrapp's latest. Yeah, that sounds weird, but "Devotion" has qualities of those bands -- the haunting vocals, the swirling shoegazer-like pop balladry, and the sparkling framework of lush, warm electronica. Well, the carnival music doesn't entirely fit in.

The first song is a bit of a sore thumb, being rockier and peppier than all the rest -- it's lovely, but seems like a hook to draw you in. But after that, the album is enfolded in a swirling mass of swirling ringing guitars and Legrand's majestic, shimmering organ. Alex Scally wraps every melody in a elusive, hazy shell of keyboard. And there's a Nicoesque tambourine that gets shaken through some of the songs, as well as that great timpani.

Legrand's voice is really a lovely one, but filtered to sound powerfully ethereal. She can infuse a feeling of poignant longing into the songs -- they tend to be about loving someone in the moment, or from afar ("we still have the summers/to be good to one another"), and have moments of truly striking imagery ("... spending money/on a desert rose/holy dances and acronyms/for bones").

Haunting, beautiful and melodious, their second album "Devotion" is a step up for Beach House. Definitely one of this year's must-hears.

Excellent second album
Beach House is a duo hailing from Baltimore, consisting of singer-songwriter Victoria Legrand and multi-instrumentalist Alex Scally. In 2006 they released their self-titled sebut album, and now comes the eagerly awaited follow-up.

On "Devotion" (11 tracks, 44 min.) the band continues the dreamy sound they brought on the debut album, and ever so slightly are a bit more open and optimistic in their songs. Opener "Wedding Bell" sets the stage for the album, with a fuller sound than ever before. "Gila" and "Turtle Island" even have some gentle melodies to them, which is more than you can say for any tracks on the debut album. Other highlights on the album for me include "Heart of Chambers", a pensive ballad, Beach House-style; "Some Things Last (A Long Time)", and the closer "Home Again", which ends the album on a hopeful and optimistic note.

In the end, "Devotion" is, like the debut album, a mood piece, pure and simple. This is not for anyone in a hurry, but if you give yourself (and the band) the chance, you'll be surprised how hypnotizing it all sounds. "Devotion" is warmly recommended!