The Baltimore duo, Beach House, will release a new album titled, 7, on May 11th.
Comprised of, Victoria Legrand (vocals, keys), and Alex Scally (guitar, vocals), together they have built a career spanning more than ten years and six albums, not including 2017’s B-Sides and Rarities.
In 2015 the band released two albums; critically acclaimed Depression Cherry and, two months later, the surprise-released album, Thank Your Lucky Stars. The band has become synonymous with the genre “Dream Pop” thanks to their hypnotic, swirling sound.
“Black Car,” a song from the new album, was released Tuesday, May 1st.
The song is the fourth to be released ahead of the album while, “Lemon Glow,” “Dive,” and “Dark Spring”, were all released earlier this year.
“Black Car” builds at a slow pace, like many Beach House tunes. A twinkling xylophone-like sound sets the stage for the entrancing track, joined by swelling synths and a lone snare drum. The song calls to mind those scenes in movies and shows in which characters accidentally discover an elaborate song by piecing together one sound at a time.
This is the magic of Beach House. They have the ability to concoct a beautiful song using what seem like scattered, unrelated parts found washed up on a breezy shoreline.
The song lasts four minutes and eleven seconds, but somehow feels much shorter, as if Legrand’s vocals have the power to bend time.
If you haven’t listened to Beach House before, know that their songs can be both mournful, and lively, yet somehow sad and merry together. Beach House leaves space for their listeners to explore, letting them interpret the sound in more than one way.
In a 2015 article, Pitchfork wrote that “Their music explores the sadness of pleasure, and the pleasure of sadness, and with each record they deepen this inquiry a little more.”
7 will no doubt be another step towards decoding this mystery.
In the video for “Black Car,” spinning black and white squares morph into mesmerizing zigzag patterns. Beach House are no strangers to trippy imagery. Past videos have featured time-lapsed plants blooming and dying, underwater bubbles, and colorful nebulae whizzing towards the camera.
Beach House are currently on a North American tour, the first leg of which ends on May 13th in Arizona. The tour will pick up again in Philadelphia on July 26th.
