SONG OF THE DAY

“10 Mile Stereo” by Beach House (Teen Dream, Sub Pop, 2010).

INTERESTING FACTS (a la wikipedia)

– Teen Dream is the third full-length record by Baltimore dream pop duo Beach House.

– The album leaked to the Internet on 19 November 2009, and was officially released on 26 January 2010.

– The album was produced by Chris Coady, who has also produced albums by TV on the Radio, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, and Blonde Redhead.

– It is also the duo’s Sub Pop debut.

– The recording of Teen Dream took place after extensive touring of the group’s previous album. The group strived to create a more “sophisticated” album, and according to the group, the demos of this record were comparable to the final tracks that made up their previous record. Also, their use of extensive reverb was held back significantly. According to Alex Scally “There’s very little reverb on the record.”

– Recording this album was considerably expensive. According to Alex Scully, “Every bit of money we got, we spent. The recording was insanely expensive. Every single step of the way, we’ve just tried to to go more, go futher.”

– Reception for Teen Dream was very positive. Review aggregator Metacritic, which collates reviews from various publications, indicates a score of 82 (indicating “Universal acclaim”). Many reviews commented on the change in sound including BBC Music, who stated that “the most unmistakeable sound on Teen Dream is that of a band truly finding its own voice”, and Pitchfork (awarding the album 9.0 out of 10) called it “both the most diverse and most listenable of their three full-lengths, and yet it never seems like a compromise”. Several publications focused on Legrand’s vocals, with Rolling Stone calling the “dusky torch singing… excellent” and The Boston Phoenix praising her voice as “coiling like smoke in the arches of the church”. Some reviews, however, were less complimentary. In a score of 4/10, The Guardian called the work “oddly icy and melodically a little ineffectual”. While The Austin Chronicle called the album “solid” and awarded it 3 stars, the review stated that the duo have “still got some gold dust to kick up”.

VIDEO OF THE DAY

And here’s an interesting cover: