Beach House

Beach House
@ The Grog Shop, Cleveland, March 27
by Andrew Clayman
Published (with edits) in The Scene (Cleveland), March 2008



There’s party music, and then there’s music for the uninvited. The sad, dreamy ballads of Beach House certainly fall into the latter category.

Hailing from Baltimore, the duo of Alex Scally (guitar/keyboards) and Victoria Legrand (vocals/keyboards) look and sound more than a little like castaways from the set of There Will Be Blood. There’s a timelessness and Big Sky expanse to the band’s slow motion melodies that haven’t been heard since the mid ‘90s hey day of Mazzy Star. In fact, Beach House defies previously held logic by actually sounding a good degree more haunting than those brooders ever did.

Scally’s weepy slide guitars certainly play their role, but the extra wrinkle is some spookily sweet, dueling organs, which perfectly wrap around Legrand’s dreary but confident beltings.

Beach House has introduced a somewhat more dramatic sound on their new sophomore effort, Devotion. It’s still not party music, though, unless you’re going to an Addams Family outing or a séance at Ray Manzarek’s house. Dance moves are pretty much limited to a lonely sway or the occasional ghostly waltz.