Two Beach House records in 2015. Released just two months after the last record, which is so soon that Depression Cherry is still one of the latest records that I’ve reviewed here, Thank Your Lucky Stars was released and if not for the massive critic coverage, I might not have even known it existed. With Depression Cherry seeming like just another Beach House record, or what I described as, “Beach House + some tracks have electric guitar on them,” their talk about sound change and evolution seemed non-existent, and to me, still not as good as Teen Dream.
I love the sound of Beach House, and if the opening of “Majorette,” the opening track on this record, or “Levitation,” off of two month’s ago’s Depression Cherry, isn’t the defining sound of Beach House, it’s worthy of its own plugin arpeggiattor keyboard that you tell what key you want to use and it just busts it out onto the piano roll for the next 4 minutes for you write over.
Upon listening to Thank Your Lucky Stars, I thought maybe I’d get that edge that Legrand and Scully said would have been on Depression Cherry that wasn’t, but on this new record, some of the songs may well have been written at any time during their career. It’s another Beach House record. I was going to get disappointed, or criticize it like I had with Depression Cherry, but unlike Depression Cherry, they hadn’t tried to tell me it was going to be anything else than just another Beach House record this time around.
It came out 2 months after Depression Cherry, and Legrand and Scully specified that it wasn’t a “companion” album, “or a surprise, or b-sides”, it was just another album recorded during the Depression Cherry sessions, that they wanted to release without all the planning and set-up that they normally go through. This statement got me thinking, “would I have enjoyed Depression Cherry more if they had not spoken of its supposed edge or expanding of ideas, that turned out nowhere to be found? If I hadn’t been upset by their lack of evolution, or my excitement to hear a new direction from Beach House that ended in disappointment, could I have appreciated Depression Cherry more?
Listening to Thank Your Lucky Stars, with nothing weighing on my conscience or decision making process other than knowing I was given the gift of another Beach House record just two months after the last, with a clear head, and an open mind, I actually enjoyed the record. It was, as I might say with all Beach House records, still not as good as Teen Dream, which I described in my Depression Cherry review as stemming from a nostalgic love of the record, and my brain’s possible denial of any record seemingly sounding similar, but its comparison to Teen Dream is besides the point of the thoughts I have hear, that even though Thank Your Lucky Stars was yet again, just another Beach House record, I had still enjoyed it thoroughly.
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