Beach House's "Once Twice Melody" : psychedelic digital dream pop

Baltimore duo transcend dream-pop with 18 tracks of mesmerising digital psychedelia.

WHILE 2018’s 7 saw incoming producer Pete ‘Sonic Boom’ Kember draw Baltimore duo Beach House’s hazy pop confections into tighter focus, follow-up Once Twice Melody marks a return to fuzz, hut is no mere retread of past glories. Running 85 minutes and composed of 18 tracks, it’s Beach House’s grandest vision yet, favouring glacial, digital psychedelia as Giorgio Moroder may have imagined it. Electronic pocket symphonies like Pink Funeral, Hurts To Love and the graceful Through Me are scored by swirling synths and hypnotic arpeggios. 

Victoria Legrand croons with impassive beauty, like O Superman-era Laurie Laurie Anderson serenades, or as if someone programmed AI to sing like Judee Sill. These bewitching lullabies from the uncanny valley are often affecting — especially the cleansing hymnal of Sunset — though a little goes a long way, and Once Twice Melody delivers a lot.

Stevie Chick