Depression Cherry is the fifth album by Baltimore dream-pop duo Beach House, who have made a career out of creating space-y slow jams that fit a bit too well with star-gazing at the (you guessed it!) beach. It hasn’t been since Bloom in 2012 the band has released an album, making this long overdue.
The first track “Levitation” is about as Beach House as it comes, with the before mentioned spaced out instrumentals and the hauntingly divine echo of lead singer Victoria Legrand making a grand entrance, as if this is the beginning of the second side of Bloom. “Levitation” creates a ‘mini-sampler’ of sorts for Beach House’s previous releases.
This leads into the first single “Sparks”, which has a bit heavier of a sound than most Beach House releases, making one curious if this is the direction Beach House will go towards for future releases. “Sparks” was off putting to many at first when it was released in July, including myself, but has grown on many fans. Unfortunately, its location on this album doesn’t make sense and it appears as a preview to their next album.
The other single on this album, “Space Song”, has some of the most beautiful instrumentals I have heard from this band, but unfortunately is bogged down by subpar lyrics in the first verse. “It was late at night / You held on tight / From an empty sea / A flash of light”, making me believe that 90% of this song’s creative genius went towards the music. Thankfully the other verses are better scripted than the first, but the lazy writing in the beginning left a bad taste in my mouth for the rest of the song.
Nestled in the middle of this record is one of the best songs of the year. “PPP” is achingly beautiful in every sense of the word. Quite a contrast from most other Beach House tracks, it has Legrand’s vocals leading the instrumentals in a grand, syncopated charge. “Out in the heartland / I looked in your eyes / And asked / Are you ready / Ready for this life?” The delivery of these lyrics and the rest of the song are astonishingly different than what I and other fans are accustomed to from Beach House, who have grown used to Legrand’s echo-y voice melt into the instrumentals like butter on toast. But the change of pace for a more vocal-focused Beach House track excited me and made the direction they are going in clearer for all fans.
Closing out the album is the nearly 7 minute long “Days of Candy”. Starting out with a choir singing angelic chords over Beach House’s trademark keyboard, it transitions to a bittersweet song of a person lost in the world and the somber past to explain why. Fitting in with the less than cheerful lyrics is an impressive, Animal Collective-esque, guitar, drums, and keyboard mix that makes this track even more haunting than the lyrics suggest.
While not being able to compete for album of the year against heavy hitters such as To Pimp a Butterfly and Carrie & Lowell, Depression Cherry still serves as a solid transition record for Beach House, giving fans of previous releases something to be happy about and fans looking for a new sound from their favorite dream-pop band something to ponder and look forward to in the future.
8/10
Andrew Zilbauer // Web Team
