Beach House: Devotion (2LP) [CARPARK]

Why you'll love it

This Carpark edition spreads Devotion across two LPs in a gatefold sleeve. It was the dream-pop duo's first album to reach the Billboard 200, and it had sold 49,000 copies in the US by 2012.

This edition

• 2LP set
• Gatefold jacket

About the album

Before the big rooms and the festival slots, Beach House was Victoria Legrand, Alex Scally and an old Yamaha keyboard that Legrand called the main instrument of the band. They wrote Devotion in the first half of 2007 and recorded it that summer at Lord Baltimore with Rob Girardi, a big step up from a debut cut on a four-track in Scally's basement. Legrand and Scally had met in Baltimore's indie scene in 2004. Overseas, Bella Union handled the album in Europe and Mistletone in Australia.

The songs are slow, hazy and quietly gorgeous. "Gila" and "You Came to Me" sway like a late-night waltz, "Wedding Bell" opens the record in a soft glow, and "Heart of Chambers" aches beautifully. They also cover Daniel Johnston's "Some Things Last a Long Time," pared back to its tender core. Videos for "You Came to Me," "Heart of Chambers" and "Gila" followed, along with a 2008 tour with Papercuts.

"Heart of Chambers" was written at a practice space by the I-83, after neighbours complained about the noise at Scally's house. Dream pop, it turns out, is louder than it sounds.

Also at Kops: more Beach House on vinyl · browse Alternative

Tracklist

Listen

On Carpark (cat# Carpark 42), the 2008 album.