Dorks And Losers

Two-piece indie band Beach House’s much antic­i­pated follow-up to their 2006 self-titled debut brings a serene mix of read­ing Emily Dick­in­son poetry and hav­ing after­noon frol­ics through tall grass fields.

Hail­ing from Bal­ti­more, Mary­land, Alex Scal­ley (gui­tar, key­boards) and Vic­to­ria Legrand (vocals, organ) have found the equi­lib­rium to day-in/day-out real­ism and imag­i­na­tive opti­mism. While not as cheer­ful and happy as other (maybe even most) dream pop bands, Beach House does offer the com­fort only found in the tran­quil­ity of mother birds and their young, nes­tled far above the rest of the world.

The duo sounds unlike any other con­tem­po­rary band. That might be because of the inclu­sion of the often under­val­ued organ, an instru­ment that more often than not airs reli­gious and spir­i­tual over­tones. Legrand uses the organ’s abil­ity to cre­ate expan­sive har­monies to instead explore grace and purity. While these two qual­i­ties may be asso­ci­ated with reli­gion, Beach House is more into cor­po­real well-being than any­thing eternal.

The themes and the music fit so per­fectly together that’s hard to imag­ine that only two peo­ple made some­thing so com­plete, yet so deeply rooted in sim­plic­ity. It’s easy to get lost within the angelic har­mony of Legrand’s vocals and organ tones, but Scalley’s gui­tar and key­board melodies are the music’s true foun­da­tion. As a whole, the music envelopes you like bright sun­light, but it’s those seem­ingly steady beats (as in “Tur­tle Island” and “Holy Dances”) that remind you that the warmth is only temporary.

And that’s okay. Joy is an amaz­ing feel­ing, whether it is for only sev­eral min­utes or mere moments. You embrace it all from the bare hon­esty of “You Came To Me” to the hyp­notic tempo of “All The Years” to pas­sion­ate loy­alty of “Gila” — which can be down­right depress­ing (“Hop­ing for the last ship to arrive / I’ve been blessed with a king­dom, half-mine”) — yet lis­ten­ing to the quasi-anthem “Heart Of Cham­ber” leaves you feel­ing noth­ing short but captivated.

Throw in an affec­tion­ate cover of Daniel Johnston’s “Some Things Last A Long Time”, a Karen Car­pen­ter sem­blance in “Wed­ding Bells”, and Devo­tion becomes some­thing more peace­ful than any vol­ume of Pure Moods, but less rap­tur­ous than divine intervention.

Track list:

1. Wed­ding Bells
2. You Came To Me
3. Gila
4. Tur­tle Island
5. Holy Dances
6. All The Years
7. Heart Of Cham­ber
8. Some Things Last A Long Time
9. Astro­naut
10. D.A.R.L.I.N.G.
11. Home Again

2008 Tour dates:

02/28 Bal­ti­more, MD Gspot
02/29 Chapel Hill, NC Local 506
03/01 Atlanta, GA The Earl
03/02 Birm­ing­ham, AL Bot­tle­Tree Cafe
03/03 Mem­phis, TN The Hi Tone Cafe
03/04 Hat­ties­burg, MS The Thirsty Hippo
03/05 Baton Rouge, LA Span­ish Moon
03/06 Hous­ton, TX Walter’s on Wash­ing­ton
03/07 Austin, TX Emo’s
03/08 Den­ton, TX Hailey’s
03/10 Tuc­son, AZ Solar Cul­ture
03/11 Phoenix, AZ Mod­i­fied
03/12 San Diego, CA The Cas­bah
03/13 Los Ange­les, CA The Echo
03/14 San Luis Obispo, CA Steyn­berg Gallery
03/15 San Fran­cisco, CA Bot­tom of the Hill <– ** My cal­en­dar is marked **
03/17 Port­land, OR Holocene
03/18 Seat­tle, WA Chop Suey
03/19 Van­cou­ver, BC Media Club
03/21 Salt Lake City, UT Kilby Court
03/22 Den­ver, CO Hi-Dive
03/24 Omaha, NE The Slow­down
03/25 Min­neapo­lis, MN 7th Street Entry
03/26 Chicago, IL Schubas
03/27 Cleve­land, OH The Grog Shop
03/28 Toronto, ON El Mocambo
03/29 Mon­treal, PQ Casa del Popolo
03/31 Cam­bridge, MA The Mid­dle East
04/01 Mid­dle­ton, CT. Wes­leyan Uni­ver­sity
04/02 New York, NY Bow­ery Ball­room
04/03 Philadel­phia, PA The Bar­bery
04/04 Wash­ing­ton, DC Rock and Roll Hotel

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