Beach House – Devotion
Well Gila, the promotional track, is excellent but I’d really hesitate to recommend the rest of this. As with a large amount of atmospheric, slow-down music, this struggles to resist drifting placidly off into the realm of muzak and is for the most part no more than pleasant.
The problem with this kind of stuff is that there are millions of albums out there that could all, interchangeably, serve the self-same purpose: dark, intimate, warm evenings when you want something lush and beautiful to which the pace of your life can slow to a crawl. So whilst this would make a lovely evening’s listen, or even a lazy Sunday afternoon one, I am not sure if I would be hugely fussed if it were exchanged with a slightly different evening’s listen, without my being informed. I doubt I’d even notice.
It is definitely a step up from Goldfrapp’s recent let-down, but nevertheless even records that rely on atmosphere and the gentle mixing of emotional eddies could benefit occasionally from a few more memorable hooks. It doesn’t need to be overt – just a chord change here or there, or slight change of pace at an unexpected moment – but without it this sort of album can really often just drift inconspicuously into the background, becoming no more essential than a nice choice of emulsion for your walls or a pair of comfortable jeans.
It’s not bad, but I won’t remember this record by the end of the week.
Beach House – Gila[audio http://www.matthewjamesyoung.com/sbt/Gila.mp3]
Beach House – Holy Dances[audio http://www.matthewjamesyoung.com/sbt/HolyDances.mp3]
I got a minute and a half into the one you said was good before I had to kill it.
The second track is on now and is going to be stopped as soon as I finish this sentence.
Well I like Gila. Their last album had one really good track on it too, but the rest failed to live up to it. Fortunately, I obtained this one by ‘alternative means’. I’d never have bought the CD in a million years.
listen You Came to Me
end of the week
Yup, that’s a fine song I’ll certainly grant that.
I quite like this.
Not sure if it’s cos I’m a sucker for that Nico-esque ‘tunefully out of tune’ vocal.
Or, despite my high ideals, I’m really just a slave to mediocrity.
(To be fair, though, not sure if I could stomach a whole album.)
I like these songs, just not the whole shebang all at once, that’s all.
The album title can be seen as a little ironic then?