AR3.BH.TD

Beach House – Teen Dream

5.9/10

I heard Beach House for the first time as the opening act to Grizzly Bear. I had never heard of them before and had not even known the name of the opening band to Grizzly Bear before the show. And so I had to form my opinion of them right then and there with nothing to influence me. I felt oddly devoid of pressure in making my choice, as though I had nothing to base my opinion off of – but the music was right there, right in front of my eyes! Is that not all I need?

I concluded that Beach House was decent, yet remained unenthused. I am used to opening bands being bad, and they were definitely pleasant. I remember distinctly hearing “Norway”, the name of the single from this album, and thinking that an integral part of the music was the pace it created. The shimmering pulse of the backing electric guitar makes the music move quite nicely – never overwhelmingly or tiresomely, but diligently. It was fun to watch and almost perfectly played the role intended of an opening act. The guitarist was using his instrument in a creative way and to play a role the guitar does not usually play, and thus I found the band somewhat captivating.

I did not think about Beach House much more until a friend of mine heard my opinion of them; he replied that he loved Beach House and seemed surprised to hear a negative review. I decided to listen again. I went to last.fm to see if there were any free tracks to stream and picked from their most recent album, expecting them to have played off that most. But none of the songs sounded like what I had heard live – they lacked speediness and energy, and seemed limp and tired. They induced boredom because they never seemed to go anywhere.

I later found out they had a new single called “Norway” much nearer in description to what I remembered hearing. When I listened to the first song on Teen Dream, “Zebra”, I could not say I was disappointed. The song soared in a way new to the band. The result is vigorous and crisp. There is a sense of drama that was previously not there. It sounded like an upbeat lullaby.

The next song “Silver Soul” did not impress though. It was more or less a rehash of the first song and seemed less sure of itself. But then “Norway” queued in, and my opinion shifted back upward. The song perplexes me in that I cannot imagine even just what angle of attack must have been necessary to create it. Legrand’s vocals follow a wispy and elusive melody as the guitar dances away unobtrusively, supplementally and chaotically all at once. The song falls out of the chorus to a dull buzz in the background and constantly bending guitar tones that dance around instability and stability, suspense and resolution. And the song hints subtly leading up to the final refrain at 3:30, which exhibits the most musical confidence of the band yet.

Both songs with love in the title were ironically of my least favorite; the band does not sound experienced on the piano, using it in a somewhat amateur way. “Better Time” is tacky rather than pretty with the worst lyric of the album, “how much longer can you play with fire/ before you turn into a liar?” But, songs like “Used to Be” use bright, glossy acoustics to tug around their pace in a convincing and artistic way. “10 Mile Stereo” has fantastic interplay between the drums and guitar. The song pivots at 1:30 as a note sustains and buzzes throughout a chord change and falls into a shoegazey grid of iridescence. It is a beautiful song I find intriguing; I cannot decide if it is happy or sad.

This album veers away from earlier works that lack animation, yet retains Beach House’s stylistic pleasantries. As a whole, though, the band still seems a little bit musically narrow and inexperienced, and will have to display fuller chops before one of their albums will truly hit home.

AR2.HC.OLS

Hot Chip – One Life Stand

4.6/10

Music’s societal role has shifted drastically since about the late 90s. Music, in itself, is no longer intended for intent, careful listening, but for pumping people up, and essentially, for evoking an aura of "coolness". Music is no longer about nuanced, unique elements that convey some abstract emotional feeling the artist feels he or she can best express through said music, but about honing towards one particular feeling that everyone seems to want – "life is good, I’m cool as hell, everything that’s going on right now embodies my image of cool, and this is how I want to spend my time".

If any band wants to become legitimately popular in this day and age, they have to conform to this requirement in some way or another. Rap does it great, and pop does a decent job too. Indie music specifically makes the people who listen to it feel like they’re better than those two other groups, which is an interesting take on the matter, but which also seems to do its job relatively well. Techno and electronic stuff can be nice and upbeat. But, anything innovative doesn’t work because it will make the listener feel stupid, and anything too personal doesn’t work because it’s lame, and if it inspires empathy in the listener, the listener feels lame. Unfortunately, real listeners want innovative and personal music.

Hot Chip does a half-decent job of reconciling these two issues by trying to mask them with as many satisfying hooks and frills as it can, carefully sliding in bits and pieces of musical prowess where others might not notice, perhaps because they were distracted by something else, perhaps an Alvin-and-The-Chipmunks-like squeal definitive of “We Have Love”? Yeah, kinda like that. Or how about the person gargling helium in the background of “Hand Me Down Your Love”?

But most of the band’s eccentricities do little harm. The slight overuse of synthetic instruments and ambient-slash-techno-bent beats is justified, because those instruments and beats were crisp, well tailored, and penetrating.  The glamorous synthetic strings and autotune in “I Feel Better” are perhaps deemed acceptable because of the richness of the sounds and rhythmic play that develop throughout the song…but maybe not. Their sometimes cheesy catchiness is compensated by layers of subtle melodic variation that interest plenty. The title track is a true sign of this: try to follow the melody and see if you can wait long enough for it to repeat and for you to notice. The depth of the sounds in the beat of this song is also impressive.

The album starts out with the anthem-like “Thieves in The Night” that accurately sets the pace and feel of the album and has some more rich and detailed sounds. “Brother” is one of the worst tracks I’ve heard from Hot Chip. It’s simple and a bit childish, and reeks of a lack of effort. It’s the kind of thing I’ve heard too much of before in a number of places, and it’s wholly disinteresting. The lyrics are rudimentary and not that clever, and the melody feels uninspired. “Slush” is a bit stylistically novel. “Alley Cats” steps up game, though, providing an awkward but pleasant environment for a suspenseful buildup that resolves gradually and warmly. “We Have Love” is a bit too much like Eiffel 65, and “Keep Quiet” sounds like an outtake from Radiohead’s Kid A. “Take It In” clinches with a very pleasant but somewhat standard artsy/indie feel.

Hot Chip moves away from noisier electronic music pretty drastically with this release, instead leaning towards a bit of an odd combination of smooth, glamorous, and tasteless synth-pop, and some pretty phat (as in, they fulfill the aforementioned requirement for successful current music) beats. It’s a bit too layered and textured, poppy in an interrupting way, and lyrically silly to be truly accessible, but is definitely catchy, pulse-heavy, careful, and in some ways, interesting. As all closes, this album took time and effort to create, and so it serves its purpose.