Organ Donors
Organ heavy Beach House delivers a Velvet Underground-esque album.
Beach House
Devotion
Released on Nov 30, -0001
Memo to your ears: indie dream-pop darlings Beach House have fallen in love with the organ, and they’re not afraid to get seriously sexed-up with the thing on their new disc, Devotion. The Baltimore-based duo weave in and out of a haze of melody, sliding between Alex Scally’s keyboards and Victoria Legrand’s stoned-out vocals. Oh, and did I mention that they love the organ all of a sudden?
Like their self-titled 2005 debut, Devotion is all about mellow grooves coupled with dreamy sound-scapes. “Wedding Bell” starts the album with a slow percussion beat that blossoms into a web of organ-laced reverb, while on “You Came to Me” Legrand slithers, “It’s the right time for a haunting.” And “haunted” might just be the best way to describe the disc—the entire thing feels light, ethereal, and tailor-made for you and your bong. Anyone who loves Nico-era Velvet Undergound should be in heaven with Devotion.
But the thing that made “The Velvet Underground & Nico” so fantastic was the way that sleepy pop-songs were mixed with psychedelic and punk tracks. Beach House could use more of that kind of eclecticism, because the tripped out pace has the unwanted effect of making one song almost indistinguishable from the next. By the time you reach the end you know you enjoyed the trip, but you can’t remember a single highlight along the way. More organ, more slide guitar, and next time, please, just a little more variety.
High Point
Low Point
Posted by Ryan Peters on Feb 29, 2008 @ 12:00 am