Beach House seeming keen on metaphor, have titled their latest as a description of their sound's progression, refinement, and maturing. Bloom, the band's fourth album and second on Sub Pop, is what it says it is, the flowering of a carefully crafted sound. With their lush, almost languid compositions, Beach House has always been a band that effortlessly wins over the ears of its audience, it's cinematic, impressionable, moody music. Victoria LeGrand's Nico-like, but softer, vocals have always glided over a delicate interplay of guitar and organ melodies. But with Bloom, and what has been gradually developed throughout their previous efforts, the instrumentation has grown and transitioned into its own. No longer are their songs intimate but crude bedroom recordings, LeGrand and instrumentalist Alex Scally are now taking advantage of studio sound, precise mixes, live, full drums, etc. And beyond that, an intimacy does manage to live on in the songcraft, LeGrand's lyrics, her vocal delivery, the band's incessant penchant for the sentimental. The album's most direct pop offering, "Other People" is an example of how the band will continue to pull us in, to suddenly empathize with the song's feelings. Its simple but irresistible hook, repeated effortlessly throughout, has the listener suddenly within its grasp. The album, then, is not unlike being arrested in a film's unfolding plot, a novel's heart wrenching narrative. From its opening Chapter, "Myth", to its delicate, secret (see "locked grooves") closing pages, Bloom will have you pleasantly stuck.

• black vinyl pressing
  
• housed in wide-spined outer jacket w/ embossed glow-in-the-dark cover
• doubled (sleeve-in-sleeve) heavy cardstock inner sleeves w/ full color artwork and full album lyrics
• hidden track "Wherever You Go" on side D after locked groove
• plays at 45rpm
• digital download included
• music label: Sub Pop 2012

reviewed by A. Tomorrow 07/2012