Beach House - Thank Your Lucky Stars (2015)

Beach House - Thank Your Lucky Stars (2015)

Rating: 13

"Watch you spin like that..."

Best Song: Majorette? Or One Thing?

Worst Song: I have no idea...

Track Listing:

1. Majorette

2. She's So Lovely

3. All Your Yeahs

4. One Thing

5. Common Girl

6. The Traveller

7. Elegy To The Void

8. Rough Song

9. Somewhere Tonight

Well I certainly haven't written here in a while, and what better band to bring me back than Beach House! I'll probably write my reviews of their discography, but in backwards order, because I'm still getting into their early discography. Anyway, the album, right. Thank Your Lucky Stars has an interesting place in the overall history of Beach House, because 2 weeks ago, no one but the people close to Beach House had any idea that there was going to be another album by them coming out for several years. Then, 9 days before the album released on October 16th, they announced this album. It wasn't outtakes from the stellar Depression Cherry, even though it released only two months prior to this, and it wasn't a b-side collection, it was an honest-to-god new album.

And we'd all better thank our lucky stars, because this album is fantastic. Opening with the pretty but also restrained Majorette, the band echoes with the threads of Depression Cherry, like a name check before a vast change, because after Majorette, the album changes styles drastically. From She's so Lovely onwards, the album is a lyrical dream unlike anything that Beach House has really done before. Stories of girls and innocence lost, almost reflecting upon the album cover. The band is as dreamy as always, of course, but there is an emotional depth to this album that differs from the mood of other recent Beach House records. Where those had a hint of melancholy that bridged over to happiness, TYLS doesn't ever bridge that gap, save Majorette. Victoria Legrand sounds almost cynical and sarcastic on a few songs, and while her voice is as pretty and croony as always, there's something different about her on this album.

Let me stress this fact about the previous paragraph; These changes are good! As much as I loved Depression Cherry, Bloom and Teen Dream, another album in the vein of these released just 2 months after the last major LP would have made an otherwise great album have seemed worse because of context. The other albums are released with just enough space in between them to make you remember the past while loving the present album, but make the overall old songs seem like distant but happy memories. The songs of Depression Cherry are still fresh on our minds, however, and a departure like what we got on this LP was the perfect way to release essentially a double album in the span of 2 months successfully. I'm with the band on this, as a double album called Thank Your Lucky Depression Cherries would have been tiring and an overall tedious listen. But taking these albums as separate works of Beach House art make them both work on their own.

To sum it all up, this is another fantastic album by a fantastic band, and the departure from what they've been doing is a welcome change. This album will be taking up the spot for a record in my LP player for the next few months until something else comes my way. Pick this album up in whatever format you want, cuz its worth a listen or 100! I'll be back at some point with my review of Depression Cherry in the next month or so! See ya.

You can listen to this album for free on YouTube by clicking on this link!