Review Summary: It's a good year to be a Beach House fan
Let’s get this out of the way: Beach House are maybe my favourite working band today. I consider their run from
Teen Dream to
7 to be all modern classics (excluding
Thank Your Lucky Stars, sorry TYLS fans), and at this stage they’d have to try very hard to release something I consider lower than an 8/10.
With that said,
Once Twice Melody definitely delivers in being a Beach House album. It hits all the same notes, with dreamy enveloping synths and melancholia abounding. Thankfully though, it has enough subtle-yet-significant progressions of their sound to keep fans engaged. Seriously, to anyone who says the band refuses to evolve, listen to “Used To Be” from
Teen Dream and then “Masquerade” from this record – it’s hard to imagine either track belonging on the other’s album.
I have had a love-hate relationship with the release strategy for
Once Twice Melody. The album’s four chapters being released individually allowed all 18 tracks to have their time in the limelight, and allowed fans to pick new highlights each month (my personal faves from each chapter: “Pink Funeral”, “New Romance”, “Sunset”, “Hurts To Love”). Then, the entire thing was released, and I couldn’t help but feel a lack of urgency to sit through the entire thing, which is odd for a band I consider among my all-time favourites. I knew all these songs… what was there to gain?
But now, as I write this review and reflect on my status as a long-time fan, I am discovering this album for a second time, now as a sprawling, grand entity rather than a mere collection of chapters.
Once Twice Melody ultimately proves to be more than the sum of its parts, and in this case said parts extend to all of Beach House’s previous albums. It feels like a culmination of the band’s esteemed career, and while I can’t rank it as my favourite Beach House album, no other record of theirs deserves the title of magnum opus quite like this.
15+ years into their career, Beach House have released maybe their most confident, exciting and ambitious record. If the band calls it quits here it will be at an all-time high, but if they want another go around, I’ll be right here beside them.
