Baltimore dream pop duo Beach House’s new album, Once Twice Melody , continues to chart, a week after scoring their first No.1 and the biggest-selling album in the country, according to Billboard.
We don’t usually mention Billboard on this blog, but this is one case where an exception is not only appropriate, but warranted thanks to the big, dreamy, soft hugs on the 18-song, double album (just wish it had a better album cover) that is Once Twice Melody .
The rockstar-duo of keyboardist/vocalist Victoria Legrand and guitarist, keyboardist, and backup vocalist Alex Scally, have nailed a dream-pop/shoegaze sound and style that is the music of angels, blue skiies and soft rolling green hills.
Yeah, maybe corny, but who gives a fuck? They craft gorgeous, beautiful, dreamy, melodic, soaring, etc. music on one track after another for more than a decade now.
During that same time, BH has gradually gained the ear and respect of many top musicians in various genres.In fact, Kayne West is reportedly in the studio with BH right now. (West actually gave Indie Rock Cafe a huge boost back in 2009 when he gave some love, and a link, to IRC on his blog.)
It was four years ago when Baltimore indie duo Beach House dropped their last album – the epic, blockbuster simply titled 7, marking BH’s seventh studio album.
A number of critics have called 7 BH’s best album to date, which is a remarkable statement when you consider the quality of albums like Bloom, Depresson Cherry and Devotion. They may need to update such declarations based on the band’s latest release.
From all indicators, Once Twice Melody, is on its way to matching or out-doing critics’ and fans’ existing or previously-favorite BH album – as scandalous as it is to say around Beach House super fans who came of age in the past decade-plus.
When twinkling synths usher the listener into Once Twice Melody—both the opening track and the album of the same name—it feels like you’re entering a fairytale, sprinkled with pixie dust.
But the mood quickly changes after the percussion and guitar come in and Beach House vocalist Victoria Legrand introduces a melancholic story about a woman attempting to process newfound loneliness while craving fantastical escapism.
With references to Peter Pan’s Neverland, Legrand outlines the woman’s life—it was once a fairytale, but has now “gone to hell,” as she later sings.
Beach House’s music has always had a cinematic quality, and that element is expanded on Once Twice Melody. The Baltimore-based duo of Legrand and Alex Scally divided the album into four chapters, each chronicling a relationship’s dissolution.
Beach House’s 2017 album, 7, featured some of the band’s darkest and most experimental tracks, and Once Twice Melody gets even more eclectic, delivering some of the most captivating work of band’s nearly two decade-long career.
New indie rock music videos are dropping left and right in past weeks, so we’re doing our best to keep up with reviewing and posting the best indie music videos of 2022 – one volume of 5 each at a time. Please share, like or follow to tell us you dig this series so we are inspired.
Just for clarification: ‘best indie music videos’ refers more to our feeling about the song itself and not the video by itself. The use of ‘video’, and the YouTube embed, helps separate posts with just audio, and those with audio AND video.
In this case, brothers and sisters, the video can be animation, lyric, or a real ‘real’ music video (if that makes sense?).
We do not post YouTube video singles that include mash-ups of stock footage and public domain media.
(YouTube/Google has a pretty strong hold on the music videos marketplace. The only viable competition – Vemo – is now owned by guess who? Google. Does this space allow fair competition? Doesn’t look like it – does it? Every time Google stock-owners go to the bank they say “GOO_GOO_GA_GA” when they see how much money – on paper – they are making. Remember – money either enhances or corrupts.)
In This Installment:
Beach House – “Sunset” from Once Twice Melody (Feb. 18th) PUP – “Robot Writes a Love Song” from The Unraveling of Pup, The Band (April 1st) MJ Lenderman – “The Hangover Game” from Boat Songs (April 29th) Baby Strange – “Under The Surface” from Land of Nothing (April 20th) Hater – “Something New” from Sincere (May 5th)
It’s no secret to our readers/followers that we have been big Beach House supporters from the get-go (more than 15 years by now – wow) after listening to the duo’s 2006 self-title debut album, featuring still-amazing tracks like the mega-loved “Master of None” to “Saltwater”, and others like the spooky “Tokyo Witch”, over and over again.
Now we are fortunate to have a track and video from the duo’s upcoming new release Once Twice Melody set to drop February 18th via Sub Pop Records.
Victoria Legrand‘s soothy, mysterious vocals and Alex Scally‘s dreamy, moody instrumentations on “Sunset” and many other tracks have never run dry or become ho-hum over the years.
Being overly analytical in cases like this can be a big fault: so, at the end of the day, all we can say about Beach House is they’re on our forever favorite indie duos of all time list.
Toronto punk quartet PUP are set to drop their foruth album, The Unraveling of Pup, The Band on April 1st via Little Dipper/Rise Records.
The video/audio track “Robot Writes A Love Song” shifts from melodic guitar-rock into an anthemic synth and drum machine-driven groove.
The band’s statement hints at something different coming up: “[It is] not just the next PUP record, but the most PUP record.”
PUP members recorded and mixed the tracks last summer at Grammy-winning producer Peter Katis’ (Interpol, Kurt Vile, The National) Connecticut mansion.
New instruments like piano, synths and horns are used for the first time on a PUP album and includes contributions remotely from the following artists: Sarah Tudzin (Illuminati Hotties), Kathryn McCauhey (NOBRO), Mel St-Pierre (Casper Skulls) and Erik Paulson (Remo Drive).
Asheville, North Carolina ndie rocker and former Wednesday band member Jake Lenderman, who records as MJ Lenderman, returns with a new track about Game 5 of the 1997 NBA Finals. The song, “Hangover Game,” is off of his forthcoming album Boat Songs.
With combating guitars and a remarkable cresecendo, the track unravels a story that Michael Jordan’s infamous 1997 illness was not food poisoning, but instead a ‘bad hangover.’
Lenderman turns the song into a silly two minutes of poetic alt-country bliss. Boat Songs drops official April 29th via Dear Life Records.
Scottish rockers Baby Strange released their new video single “Under The Surface”.
The video is wonderfully creative and memorable – an accomplishment these days, especially on what we assume was a limited budget. Overall it’s a clever artistic concept that doesn’t need to be flashy or elaborate to be effective. Of course it helps that the song itself is a kick-ass rocker.
Another single, “Midnight,” released on New Years Eve – was the first teaser from the band’s upcoming second album, Land of Nothing, due April 20th via Icons Creating Evil Art.
It’s a powerful song for me, writing it was a total release”
Vocalist and guitarist Johnny Madden explains: “’Under The Surface’ is a song about feeling trapped and wanting to find a way out of whatever is holding you back. It’s about paranoia, dark thoughts and the need to get over them. It’s a powerful song for me, writing it was a total release and when we finished it in the studio I felt a weight was lifted from my shoulders.”
Frontview Magazine : “There is an underlying rawness to the energy sewn deep into the fabric of Glasgow that Baby Strange have harnessed with an unrelenting force.”
Swedish band Hater has dropped the first single, “Something” from their new album Sincere.
It’s the indie quartet’s follow-up to 2018’s Siesta, “Something” is a hypnotizing mix of shoegaze guitars, Caroline Landahl‘s wonderfully diverse vocals and soft, offset drum beats.
This newest peek-view at the upcoming release of Sincere on May 6th via Fire Records.
IRC’s first Top 10 Indie Songs (January 2022) for the new year presents the best new indie rock tracks we’ve heard so far this year.
New singles are dropping left and right – we’ll keep doing our best to bring you the best music you know and don’t know about.
This installment includes amazing songs from a mixed subgenre bag from rock to pop and folk to punk featuring Band of Horses; Yard Act; Black Country, New Road; Animal Collective; Beach House; Beirut; The Wombats; Metronomy; Broken Social Scene and Local Weatherman.
Enjoy and plz share and follow so we know you want more of these.
Beach House‘s new album Once Twice Melody drops on February 18 via Sub Pop and Bella Union.
Baltimore’s famous indie dream pop duo Beach House has just released Chapter 3′ from Once Twice Melody featuring five new tracks, including the seductive “Masquerade”.
The releasing of tracks from the double album via installments over the past months is a smart strategy as it slowly builds anticipation of Beach House fans by revealing a few synth-glazed tracks at a time rather than all at once – or even just one single at a time (which is a more common tactic).
Here’s what one fan, mattyb01, wrote on Bandcamp: “already some of the best dream pop/shoegaze I’ve heard since Ceres & Calypso in the Deep Time by Candy Claws.
“The absurd amount of time and talent that must have went into making this album shows, and I’ll be patiently waiting for the rest of the parts as they come out. The mix of synths and drum machines with guitars, as well as the absolutely gorgeous string arrangements make for a extremely entertaining listening experience. Favorite track: Pink Funeral.
Many fan comments selected “Starstruck” as the best of the new tracks.
Once Twice Melody is Beach House’s eighth studio album release.
Despite chapter after chapter drops it’s going to be very interesting to hear the entire project all at once when it officially drops next month.
In all, 13 of the 18 tracks are available to stream via the duo’s Bandcamp page:
We are, collectively, playlist fanatics. That includes you and probably your friends and family members. We love to take songs we dig and organize and label them. It allows everyone to be a deejay in their own way, for real.
Inside the cafe, and for more than two decades – since the late 80’s – we’ve created cassette mixtapes featuring all kinds of genres and styles, from radio hits by big name bands to totally under-the-radar should-be hits from bands very few people have ever heard of.
As the years zinged by, those cassette mixtapes went to CDs and then to iTunes and now to Spotify because it is the one platform that finally made sharing music, and therefore playlists that so many long hours were dedicated to, are now being converted to Spotify to share with our viewers. We try to make sure the music is related to a theme. However, the first criteria is the song itself must be really good to legendary.
We encourage you to review Indie Rock Cafe’s Spotify page where you can follow us for more playlists. You are sure to hear a lot of great music you either already love or much more that you are sure to enjoy, including playlists about looks of different things – including this new playlist, called Around The World, with great songs from alternative, classic and indie rock bands about places around the world.
The fifteen tracks in this playlist highlight favorite songs of ours from a variety of genres and artists, including well-known bands, and others that are more obscure. Enjoy.
You can open the playlist to the IRC channel on Spotify or stream in on the site with the embed included below. Enjoy and share with friends.
It’s almost mid-summer. People everywhere are enjoying the sun and staying cool from the heat, taking part in summertime activities like going to the beach, having BBQs, playing baseball, surfing at the ocean, swimming in pools, riding bikes, watching movies, and in general, making the best of the long, hot days.
Summer is a season of celebration, recreation, relaxation, family and friends, and of course, listening to music, whether you’re just hanging around the house, driving about town, jogging or bike riding with headphones on, or at a party with friends.
So far, we’ve put together and posted two massive summer playlists this year. The huge response to the first two mixes was a clear message for more summer mixes. Therefore, we gotta give the people what they want, man.
The first two mixtapes included songs from all eras and genres of music, but for today’s summer mix, we’re sticking with just alternative and indie rock bands. This mix is also more pop-oriented than other tapes, and it’s likely that even the biggest indie music nerds will hear artists in this mix they never knew of before.
In the coming weeks, we’re going to let loose more summer mixes that are already well along – there are so many hot songs that we’re going to get to you. In the meantime, this mix and the firstand second mixes, should keep y’all busy for a while – nearly 150 songs between the three of them, not counting last year’s summertime playlists you might also want to checkout.
If you like these mixtapes, let us know by reTweeting, Facebooking, Digg’ing, Stumbling, and however else you can think to make us feel good and share these mixes with more people that you think will enjoy them – that’s why we do this; we love sharing great music with others.
As with all the playlists on IRC, just click the first song and the entire playlist will stream non-stop until the end. You can also do Save As to download MP3s you like most. We hope you enjoy this mix, from start to finish, as much as we do. Fire it up!
