Beach House – Once Twice Melody

In 2015, Baltimore dream-pop mavens Beach House released two records in the same year, Depression Cherry (QRO review) and Thank Your Lucky Stars (QRO review), a double-dose that was welcome, but didn’t have to happen. Now they’re putting out a full-fledged double-album, Once Twice Melody, that has all the Beach House beauty, even if no one’s ever really need to release a double-album.

Broken out into four ‘seasons’ of four-to-five songs each, Melody is a beautiful, airy environment from start to finish. There are moments of relative variety, such as the sway of the titular opener, the bigger ‘80s up-synths of “Over and Over”, and the truly charming “Finale” (which starts, not ends, the final season), plus darker undercurrents to tracks like “Superstar” and “Masquerade”. However, this is mood music, one big whole, and if left on repeat you’ll probably never know when it ends/begins.

Usually, double-albums are just a regular album with filler that should have been b-sides, or occasionally the result of too many songwriters each wanting to get in as many of their songs as possible (think The Beatles, Hüsker Dü). Of course, Once Twice Melody’s length is probably from enforced COVID time off the road. There’s no obvious weak tracks, even if the size (almost an hour-and-a-half) make for no real standouts. Just another big Beach House vacation.