Bloom / Beach House
Beach House has created something quite breathtaking with their fourth album, Bloom. This album’s initial allure comes not only from the individual album itself, but also from the history of the band’s album releases. Since their self-titled, debut album in 2006, they have proceeded to make each album they put out better than the last. With this release, they have superseded expectations by taking their music to the next level.
This album contains colossal songs that could fill the most vastly desolate places. They have kept their signature lackadaisical pop feel, but have also implemented a fuller sound similar in feeling to M83‘s 2005 album Before the Dawn Heals Us. With this new innovation, Beach House has allowed their mellow sounds to be supported by an under-layer of driving power. Even though classic Beach House songs such as Turtle Island, Gila, and Zebra are lovely and rich, they just do not encompass the same force songs from the new album, like Myth and Lazuli, do.
This all isn’t to say Beach House has wandered off from what it is they normally do; they have merely expanded. The songs still have the same shrill keyboard lines, genial dance feel and prominent reverb, which is part of the genius of it all. Fine adjustments were all it took to make the songs worlds taller and more awe-inspiring.
Bloom is filled with emotion for the duration of the album. In the telling song Wild, the lyrics morosely sing, “my mother said to me that I would get in trouble. My father won’t be home, because he is seeing double.” The song’s inflection allows the listener to gain allegorical insight. Not only does it emulate nostalgic emotion with a dark, minor tone, but also the resound lyrics paint a perfect picture of the scene being portrayed.
Some of the songs feel too powerfully gestalt to readily identify just what makes them so mesmerizing. The song Wishes, for instance, conjures up thoughts of a vast wonderland with all components blending to form one unified sound. The individual parts would not be nearly as powerful isolated yet work together to ultimately create a robust product.
In a sense, Bloom is an album that does the work for itself. It doesn’t take much thought or effort for the listener to understand the power each of these songs possess. It is subtly elaborate and masterfully crafted. The only worry is how difficult it will be for the band top this astonishing piece of work.
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