Beach House's third album, Teen Dream was rated very highly in many listeners polls of 2010 and it's easy to hear why.
The Baltimore duo of Alex Scally and Victoria Legrand released their exceptional second album called Devotion in 2008 and Teen Dream delivers on it's predecessor's promise in a massive way.
It's an altogether more punchy and hi-fi follow-up, establishing just how Beach House have quickly emerged from the shadowy indie underground and are busy announcing themselves as a major new force in popular music.
Preferring to describe their music as "make-out jams", Beach House sound like they're pitched somewhere between Mazzy Star, Big Star, ABBA and Air. They're nostalgic, melancholic at times but often strident and blazingly optimistic. Open, emotive,anthemic and earnest but never mushy or maudlin.
Soaring slide guitar and pealing keyboards weave into often majestic choruses led by Legrand's impassioned, throaty tones.
Particular highlights include the stellar "10 Mile Stereo" (currently rotating on prime-time TV as the new Guinness ad song), "Norway" and the sublime opening gambit, " Zebra".
But drop the laser anywhere on"Teen Dream and you'll find it's an album chock-full of highlights and a bold,resounding artistic success all round.
G.M.
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