"Thank Your Lucky Stars" - Beach House [Official Full Album Stream + Zumic Review]

Less than two months after the release of their last LP, Depression Cherry, Beach House returns to their gloriously reverberant sound with Thank Your Lucky Stars.

The band described the album as "not a companion" to Depression Cherry, but rather its own separate entity. On the whole, this new album carries a darker tone than its predecessor, incorporating more acoustic percussion than normally associated with the group (as made apparent in the album's powerful opening track, "Majorette").

Staying true to their signature brand of dream pop, Alex Scally and Victoria Legrand have created an immersive musical experience with Thank Your Lucky Stars, using the cathedral-esque production quality to enhance their charismatic chord changes and chant-like melodies.

On Thank Your Lucky Stars, Beach House sound like The Beach Boys on downers. "Common Girl" is an endearingly vintage-sounding track with an intro similar to the swing of "California Girls," reminiscent of the stripped-down arrangement and subject matter of Brian Wilson's "Wonderful" with sparse timpani hits tastefully added to the background in a manner similar to the Pet Sounds instrumental "Let's Go Away For A While."

"One Thing" is a spacey jam, with a floor tom-heavy groove and a vibe similar to The Verve's "Bittersweet Symphony," and one of the best uses of a diminished chord in pop music since "God Only Knows."

As mentioned earlier, "Majorette" is a powerful opener, featuring lush dream pop production and a solemnly beautiful hook. "All Your Yeahs" has an eerily minimalist, new-wave quality about it.

In a case similar to the most recent Weezer album, the songwriting is not the most inventive, but there are a couple of great tracks that make the album really stand out. While the album isn't their strongest, Thank Your Lucky Stars is a noteworthy production shift for Beach House. It is an organic sounding record, with a sacred luminescence that highlights the juxtaposing duality of hopelessness and optimism represented by the album's cover art and title, respectively.

Thank Your Lucky Stars is available on Amazon (Vinyl, CD, MP3). You can also stream the full album for free above, via YouTube.

For more Beach House music, news, and tour dates, check out their Zumic artists page.