Nathaniel Clark

Contributing Writer

nuc5002@psu.edu 

On February 18, American dream pop duo Beach House released their eighth studio album Once Twice Melody via Sub-Pop records. This is the first project from the band in four years, following up 2018’s 7. This album release also comes shortly after the band’s 2015 song “Space Song” made the rounds as a popular sound on TikTok, bringing the song mass popularity. With the band themselves once again on the production front, the album was mainly produced at Apple Orchard Studios in Baltimore, Maryland. 

In a first for the band, Once Twice Melody is a double album, meaning that it consists of enough music to fill up two 12” vinyl records. This goliath of a project comes with 18 tracks equalling around 80 minutes of new material. Hearing this amount of tracks may be daunting to some -and indeed it is, but Beach House has figured out a way to make the album easier to consume. To achieve this easier listening experience, the album is split into four chapters, each equally out to being around 20 minutes each. While each portion carries the classic dream pop of Beach House, the separation brings the feeling of physically flipping the record to the other side to a digital perspective. To discuss the content of this album, it will be to look at this project with this chapter setup in mind. 

Chapter One of Once Twice Melody begins with the album’s title track, immediately placing the listener back into the Beach House mindset. This then leads into “Superstar,” an ethereal song perfect for late-night driving. Keeping with the movement from the previous song, “Pink Funeral” has a beautiful string section joined by a wailing guitar and Victoria Legrand’s silky vocals. The chapter closes with “Through Me,” sending you off to the rest of the album. 

Chapter Two begins with the drum machine of “Runaway” pounding heavily as the track brings the duo back together. “ESP” is a very low-key song as the instrumentation muddles together behind the closeness of the vocals. “New Romance” builds throughout its runtime, bringing back the drums and other instruments to their normal level. The longest track on the album, “Over and Over” is a perfect conclusion for the first half of the album. The song feels like the end-credits music that plays as you ascend. With this sense of finality, the listener is prepared to enter a different experience in the album’s second half. 

In a pleasant surprise for the album, Chapter Three opens with the sound of acoustic guitars on “Sunset,” bringing with it the feeling of reintroduction. “Only You Know” has a harder edge when compared to the rest of the project with its echoing vocals and more rock-adjacent drumming. “Masquerade” takes inspiration from synthpop with its heavenly synth leads and forward movement melding with the apparitional vocals. “Illusion of Forever” closes this chapter off by reincorporating the acoustic guitar as it sounds like the band is sailing away towards the final stretch of the album. 

“Finale” acts as the start of Chapter Four with the feeling of wonder as the band reaches their destination. “The Bells” introduces the more love-centric balladry in store for this section as Legrand discusses her love for another individual. “Hurts to Love” is an excellent track with its glitched-out organ and poppy synth-lead as the vocals sing of the troubles of relationships. The closer for this chapter and the album as a whole is “Modern Love Stories.” The song carries a level of grandiosity as Legrand emotes on life as the instrumentation behind her swells until it reaches its peak and comes down into an acoustic guitar-led finale. 

To wrap it up, Once Twice Melody delivers the same level of greatness as to be expected by Beach House. While not groundbreaking, it is astounding how the album moves at such a pace that the 80 minute runtime goes by quickly. It is great to see Beach House back to making the music that they do best: one of the best albums of the year so far.