In the 12 years since the gorgeous Teen Dream brought their hazy, heavy dreampop to wider renown, Beach House have refined and tweaked their formula across four albums, reaffirming rather than reinventing. Their first self-produced record (with engineering assistance from Alan Moulder and Dave Fridmann), and the first to benefit from the wild richness of a live string section, Once Twice Melody was released serially. It phases through different moods across its four chapters, with dominant hints of Love-like, dark-tripping folk-rock and a more electronic psychedelia reminiscent of Broadcast.
The title track opens with an aloof feel, Victoria Legrand keeping close, mysterious harmony with herself. Runaway brings the duo back to their most seductive by Chapter 2, with pulsing beats and brittle, harpsichord-like keys. Masquerade hits an overtly goth-rock high point in Chapter 3 before the final songs fade out slowly in a warm, golden-hour nostalgia, closing at last with the stately cosmic darkness of Modern Love Stories. It’s testament to the structure and variety of Once Twice Melody that it never lags over 18 tracks, its gradual release paradoxically validating the album format as one still worth surrendering to, totally.
