Beach House is a indie dream pop duo out of Baltimore. Formed by Victoria Legrand and Alex Scally in 2004, the band released their debut, self-titled LP in 2006 on Carpark Records. They signed to Sub Pop after releasing a second album on Carpark and have been with the famed Seattle label since.
The band found great success with their track “Space Song” off the 2015 LP Depression Cherry after it trended on TikTok on videos that emphasize dramatic irony. The track continued to grow in success after its placement in a scene in the hit Netflix show Wednesday in 2022.
Also in 2022, they released their eighth LP, Once Twice Melody.
Below, you’ll find a complete collection of album reviews, song reviews, features, music videos, lists, and more covered on FensePost that include Beach House.
I haven’t had much time of late to write. The house project of repainting walls, painting trim, pulling up carpets, and laying down bamboo has absolutely dominated my time. That and working on my BMW, which in the past few weeks has received a full tune-up (with exception of replacing points and cleaning the carb).
Intro from Fense. It’s hard to believe I’ve known Nate for about a decade. We first met, if I were to make an honest guess, in the fall of 2001. I don’t believe either of our musical inclinations had yet been established, mine for writing and critiquing and his for DJing and working at Seattle’s only truly great radio station — KEXP. Ultimately we found comfort in the KZUU crowd, which led to where we are today. After posting my best-of list for 2010, Nate hit me up expressing interest in passing along his. And while he was at it, dropped a list of best shows as well. Check ’em out!
The problem with so-called best-of lists, is that they are really just a collection of items organized based on experience and time, in that there will be plenty of albums heard the following year and beyond that will hold just as much weight as these we dub as “Best.” So, as of right now, at this particular time in the tail end of 2010 and the first moments of 2011, these albums are the best. There’s no question about it; it will change. My next list (which I’ve started, but may take a while to publish) is dubbed, paraphrase: the best albums I didn’t check out in 2011 for some reason or another.
I know, I’ve owed this one to you, my readers, for a few months now. The plan originally was to concoct a sort of mid-year recap of the first half, dictating a slew of wonderful albums that may or may not come to find a spot on the inevitable end-of-year list. A hint at what may come. But that didn’t happen. I added a few hobbies to my seemingly never ending list of things that eat away at my time (see above photo) and it fell down the priority list.
Earlier this week I noted in my review of Avi Buffalo that Sub Pop may very well dominate my end of year list, and that being notable as we near the 1/3 mark of 2010. After thinking about it, I figured it was time for another list in Label Spotlight form. Now, the typical Label Spotlight covers the unknown record collectives throughout the world, but as some of my favorite releases so far this year have come from Sub Pop, I figured What the hell… Let’s go for it!
Fact: I never really dug Beach House. I often found their blend of minimal drone meets spacey bedroom pop a bit drab. Melodies didn’t seem to be all there, and the vocal parts, too, were dull. My interest waned in the first few songs of both their self-titled debut and their follow-up Devotion, so I’d pull them from the record player. Thus they found an inevitable fixed spot on my dusty record shelf.