Beach House
Depression Cherry

Fifth album for Beach House, one of the most promising indie and dream pop bands of recent years, for artistic coherence and high musical quality reasserted album after album (the increasing trilogy Devotion, Teen Dream and Bloom are proof of that) and live talent. They reiterated in a recent interview that, as was the case with that pop masterpiece called Teen Dream from 2010, a slight musical shift was made for this Depression Cherry (a name that says it all).

After the resounding and dark pop of Bloom, they wanted to return to the lo-fi bedroom intimacy, managing to create a precious and halfway interesting work.

The super catchy and sugary pop pieces that have made the recognizable style of the duo Scally-LeGrande (born as an experiment inspired by Mazzy Star and Cocteau Twins in the hipster-Pitchfork era) are not missing, like PPP (a true tribute to Devotion), Levitation and Space Song, among the most beautiful of the album. Meanwhile, the very slow closure of Days of Candy or the rather noisy shoegaze of the first single Sparks do not convince at all.

The problem is that the radio friendly, pop and polished turn begun with their aforementioned third album of 2010 surprisingly pleased many, both among the audience and critics (two judges too often irreconcilable musically speaking), precisely because it made their undeniable melodic talent, their strong irony between the lines from nerds, and especially their peculiarity even more evident in the current musical environment which is overly saturated with bands sadly imitating Slowdive, Ride, and My Bloody Valentine.

Perhaps they wanted to dare after two very similar albums, perhaps they were short on stylistic ideas. Either way, this proves to be their first half misstep after years.

Absolutely enjoyable for the big fans.