Beach House - Bloom (Bella Union)

Beach House – Bloom (Bella Union)

Beach House Bloom

Warning: the following review may contain – unapologetically – an abundance of ethereal (see, its started already!) superfluous descriptions.

 

Many commentators/critics will argue over the merits of Beach House‘s fourth installment of diaphanous imbued visions, Bloom; discussing to the nth degree where it fits in the duo’s chronolgy.  Excuse my flippancy for a moment, but this burgeoning, slow-burner, fails to match the empyreal heights of their last album, Teen Dream. It doesn’t help that Victoria Legrand and Alex Scally produced near-perfection on that sublime and blissful opus.

Don’t misunderstand me, Bloom is still one of the best LPs you’re going to hear in 2012, if not beyond, it’s just missing a certain something.

All the customary halcyon shoegazing waves of beutific majesty, alongside Legrands seductive, ‘gargling-with- Gauloise’ vocals, are present and correct. You could even slip the odd song into the Teen Dream set without noticing, such is the harmonic-shared traversing similarties – especially on the leading overture, Myth.  There’s certainly a deeper, more indolent and slimmed-down feel, and though “every chord and note has its place”, the album tends to drift aimlessly.

Alluding to the temporary, the album’s evanescent floral title was captured on the road, as Beach House spent the best part of the last 2-years on tour. It’s no wonder then that Legrand describes Bloom as “a journey”; one that unveils “the irreplaceable power of imagination as it relates to the intense experience of living”. Throw mortality into that floating heady mix and the barely-concealed theme of cherished love-pained reflection, and you’ve just about covered it.

In a way, this 10-track suffused pining ouevere of pliable series of postcards from a landscape-potted break-up, completed with passing environmental sound passages and foley.  Legrand’s yearning coos and lived-in angelic tones still cause grown-men to weep, but they sail closer then ever towards the soothing wispy burr of Blonde Redhead‘s Kazu Makino, and the wooing permutations of Stevie Nicks – Legrand and Scally take on the form of a shoegazer’s Fleetwood Mac, circa Rumours. She can still glide towards those seraph highs, and evoke a quivering-lip response from the listener; the rolling sea-momentum circus waltz, On The Sea, really stirs the soul, and the sighing rung-out held notes on Wild, would melt even the biblical Pharaohs cruel cold heart.

Chris Coady (Yeah, Yeah, Yeahs, !!!, Blonde Redhead and TV On The Radio) once again is on hand to lift the production into the rapturous beatitude stratosphere, taking Scally’s trembling, reverberating synthesis guitar riffs and streams to ever-more dramatic peaks. The expansive Myth opener is Bloom’s version of Zebra or 10 Mile Stereo; a ‘blosseming’ ,aching, moving anthem – perhaps one of the duo’s best – with all the resonant trimmings. Other notable benchmarks include the sumptuous, lilting, dry-ice Lazuli (which takes its theme and title from the semi-precious prized Lapis Lazuli stone, revered for its intense blue radiance); the tender lush pop, Maria Mckee-esque, Wishes (my favourite); and the searing, rippled, “It’s a strange paradise”, repeating, drifting closer, Irene And Wherever You Go.

However Bloom occasionally lapses into effete and touchy-feely metaphor humdrum pop – Other People is a far too cheery number for my liking, sounding as it does like the theme tune from some forgotten 80s US soap. Yet these minor foilbles seem trivial when you breath-in Beach House’s full, “singular, unified vision of the world”; encapsulated in a complex kaleidoscope-layered  album that reveals its secrets slowly and effectively.

14/05/2012

[Rating:4]

http://www.beachhousebaltimore.com/

  1. “Every chord and note has it’s place”? As in “every chord and note has it is place”? I’ll bet you didn’t get that from the lyric sheet.

    “The albums evanescent floral title” should be “the album’s evanescent, floral title”.

    And, erm, “it would melt even the biblical Pharaohs cruel cold heart”. Presumably meaning the cruel, cold heart of the biblical pharaohs.

    You’re trying too hard, son. There’s no point in whacking in big words like “empyreal” or nonsensical phrases like “this 10-track suffused pining ouevere of pliable series of postcards” if you haven’t learnt basic punctuation first.

    1. Christ Bill, if you didn’t like this then you’ll HATE all my reviews. Save it for the snide, half-arsed writers; music criticism needs passion far more than it needs accuracy at the moment.

      1. Thanks Duncan, my sentiments exactly! I don’t mind criticism when it’s correct. BT’s remarks seem a little too fatuous; merely splitting hairs over punctuation.
        Then again if you trawl through the Guardian or Quietus message boards, then I’ve been let-off lightly!

  2. Thank yo Bill for correcting my punctuation mistakes’ though I believe you are wrong on flagging-up “the album’s evanescent, floral title”, and in fact the “every chord and note has it’s place” line was a direct comment from Alex Scally – so yes Bill you were right that it never came from the lyric sheet.

    Secondly Bill, you are indeed spot-on with the Pharaohs reference. Yet its use is problematic for you, I don’t really know.

    I happen to think, “this 10-track suffused pining ouevere of pliable series of postcards”, is a befitting description myself.

    Bill, why your comments are valid in places, please never refer to me as Son! For one I expect I’m actually older than you. And two, people usually mean it to condescend, patronise or use it to put someone in their place. If I’ve misjudged your use than forgive me.

  3. That’s some great pedantry.

    When’s this out? I spent too much money on CDs last week but forgot to include this so I need to get it as well!

    1. Tim, the album is due out on the 14th of May, though it has been streamed countlessly on many sites/blogs etc. The Guardian had it streamed on Tuesday I believe, but I’m not sure if that’s still the case.

      Mercury Prize nomination: Step in anyone if I’m wrong, but I think it would fit in the timeline, not that it will. Teen Dream is much better and it never got a sniff.

  4. A few miss placed apostrophies doesn’t barr anyone from using descriptive language! I do appreciate the corrections mind, if anything it’s my fault for not subbing it very well not Doms!

    1. Thanks Bill C.

      Seems an odd set of comments from Bill T. Trying too hard? But then critcises my apparent slapdash manner with punctuation? There are two points in which I’ve made mistakes perhaps with a stray comma, but he’s wrong on all those other points. It’s, shorthand for it is, is different to its, as in “every chord and note has its place”, not “every note and chord has it is place” as I believe Bill T is suggesting.

      Enough no more! I’m done, and not about to carry-on a fatuous “pedantry” argument.

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God is in the TV is an online music and culture fanzine founded in Cardiff by the editor Bill Cummings in 2003. GIITTV Bill has developed the site with the aid of a team of sub-editors and writers from across Britain, covering a wide range of music from unsigned and independent artists to major releases.