Review: Beach House - Bloom

Like so many younger siblings, it seems impossible to avoid comparing Beach House's new album Bloom to 2010's Teen Dream; when a band releases an album that popular and well-received, they have a tough act to follow, and face the all-too-real risk of fading into obscurity. That risk isn't something Victoria Legrand and Alex Scally need to worry about, since Bloom can certainly hold its own, but I feel like Beach House have hit rather than raised the bar this time around, if that makes any sense.

Bloom is immediately recognizable as a Beach House album - lush walls of reverb, simple drumming, tambourine, Legrand's smoky vocals, Scally's telecaster ringing like a bell - but it feels more energetic than Teen Dream, seeing the duo experimenting with louder sounds and (slightly) faster tempos. Songs like the album opener "Myth" (above) and "Other People" (my personal favorite) will feel most familiar to Teen Dream fans, whereas the syncopated "New Year" and "Troublemaker" go uptempo without sacrificing the dreamy sound Beach House are known for. And the lyrical content will be familiar to Beach House fans as well; Victoria Legrand can still be heard belting out love-lorn lines like "the consequence \ of what you do to me" and "someone like you."

While Bloom and Teen Dream might feature similar songs, the sonic differences are prominent: the latter's thick, languid, mid-heavy sound has been dialed back a bit in favor of louder, more detailed-sounding production. Bloom's tighter compression and heavier reverb (really Beach House? More reverb?) sound overwrought to me, but the tracks also sound more spacious, with a not-unwelcome tad more treble in the mix. The drums are also busier and featured more prominently in the mix throughout the album, which is no doubt a factor in Bloom's fuller sound and higher energy level.

If I can make any complaint about Bloom, it would be a lack of restraint. Beach House has a knack - a reputation, even - for making their small lineup sound big, and while Bloom's arrangements aren't any more grandiose than Teen Dream's, it comes off somehow sounding a bit bloated and repetitive. All the euphoria of past Beach House albums is still there; there's just too much of it too often. Bloom's louder production is at least partially to blame for that, with a lot of the dynamic subtleties of Victoria Legrand's delivery squashed out and the bass at a constant rumble. The album seems to meander between mezzo-forte and forte; all loud all the time.

All things considered, Bloom is a solid continuation of Beach House's dream-pop legacy and absolutely worth listening to. I once described it to a friend as "a Beach House album," but based on their previous work that's not a bad thing at all.