B-Sides and Rarities

Album review

It's written on the sleeve: B-Sides and Rarities. But this summer 2017 release is not just for hardcore Beach House fans, as the pieces brought together on this compilation give a good account of the talent of this Baltimore duo who specialise in dream pop. Like a nice introduction for novices... 2015 was a good year for Beach House fans. With two excellent albums just 50 days apart (Depression Cherry followed by Thank Your Lucky Stars), the sublime melancholy that is carried on the voice of Victoria Legrand (niece of Michel) and in the harmonies of Alex Scally offered a nicely varied palette of tones. The mixed bag suggested by the title B-Sides and Rarities isn't really what you get. Fourteen songs gleaned from across the length of their career, with in particular two unreleased numbers: Chariot and Baseball Diamond. " When we announced that we were releasing a B-sides and rarities album the pair relate, someone on Twitter asked, ‘B-sides record? Why would Beach House put out a B-sides record? Their A-sides are like B-sides.’ This random person has a point. Our goal has never been to make music that is explicitly commercial. Over the years, as we have worked on our 6 LPs, it wasn’t the ‘best’ or most catchy songs that made the records, just the ones that fit together to make a cohesive work. Accordingly, our B-sides are not songs that we didn’t like as much, just ones that didn’t have a place on the records we were making.. " © CM/Qobuz