ALBUM
The Age
Saturday February 20, 2010
WHO Beach HouseWHAT Teen Dream (Mistletone)FOR an album conceived in isolation, Beach House's Teen Dream has an uncanny ability to tug at heart strings en masse. Recorded in a converted church in upstate New York - the band holed up there for a month with producer Chris Coady (TV on the Radio) - it is the third album for the Baltimore duo, but the first to reach the emotional peaks hinted at on previous discs. That transformation has much to do with singer Victoria Legrand, whose once innocuous warble has become a full-bodied beast. Whether it's those high church ceilings or the way she now lingers on every word, Legrand sounds positively inspired here, soaring to Band of Horses-esque crescendos on opening track Zebra, or filling the spaces intricately carved out by guitarist Alex Scally. Finally, it seems, they're daring to dream.
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