Beach House: Once Twice Melody (2LP, silver edition) [SUB POP]

Why you'll love it

This silver edition 2LP set comes in a textured, foil-stamped outer sleeve with full-colour inner sleeves and a poster. It debuted at No. 12 on the Billboard 200 with 24,000 units.

This edition

• 2LP set
• Silver edition
• Textured foil-stamped jacket
• Full-colour inner sleeves
• Double-sided poster

About the album

Most bands drop a single to tease an album. Beach House handed theirs out in four chapters over four months, and by the time the whole thing landed in February 2022 people had been living with it since the previous November. Victoria Legrand and Alex Scally, the Baltimore duo behind it, began it in 2018, soon after their seventh album, at their Apple Orchard Studio in Baltimore, and Scally taught himself to engineer along the way.

It's their first album produced entirely by the duo and their first with a live string ensemble, arranged by David Campbell. The title track and "Superstar" glide, "Runaway" leans into vocoder, side three dips into shoegaze, and "Masquerade" and "Finale" nod to 80s synth pop. Live drums were recorded in Los Angeles, and the songs drift between dream pop, neo-psychedelia and chamber pop. Alan Moulder was among the four engineers who mixed it.

Eighteen songs across four sides, and it never once breaks the spell. We'd suggest playing it in a single sitting, though the band did once make a strong case for spreading it over a season.

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

Tracklist

Listen

On Sub Pop (cat# SP 1470), the 2022 album.