On Beach House’s self-titled debut, the Baltimore duo of Alex Scally and Victoria Legrand captured the melancholy air of summer’s fade into autumn. It was a beautiful, bittersweet record and a promising debut.
With the duo’s follow-up, Devotion, Beach House conjures feelings of a different time and place on a wide scale. The volume on Devotion is low, undistorted, and the tone is sedate. Shadows of The Velvet Underground and Mazzy Star loom over the eleven songs. There are traces of Dusty Springfield’s blue-eyed Memphis soul, boosting these dreamy melodies with joyful sweetness.
Before Ghost Games, The Apes made concept albums—wild and fantastic epics in which the band imagined themselves as magical crusaders and conjured bizarre visions of twisted enlightenment. These strange tales were held down by the dark and murky pummel of booming drums, fuzzed-out bass or baritone guitar, and dense organ.
Recently announced are the tour dates for the west coast leg of the upcoming Russian Circles tour. Having just completed the recording of their album Station (Suicide Squeeze Records), the Chicago trio will tour the east coast with Dälek and the Young Widows, do a song or two at SXSW in Austin, then head west with the Red Sparowes.
