Once Twice Melody is the eighth studio album by the American dream pop duo Beach House. It was released on February 18, 2022, through Sub Pop, with its four chapters being released throughout four months starting November 10, 2021. A follow-up of their seventh studio album 7 (2018), they began recording the album in 2018 at their home studio, Apple Orchard Studio, in Baltimore, with additional recording taking place at Pachyderm Studio, United Studio and Village Recorders until July 2021.
A double album of 18 songs, it is presented in four chapters with several musical styles being used throughout, including dream pop, neo-psychedelia and chamber pop. Once Twice Melody received universal acclaim by music critics upon release, and debuted at number 12 on the US Billboard 200 chart, with 24,000 album-equivalent units. To support the album, "Once Twice Melody", "Hurts to Love" and "Superstar" were released as singles. Beach House additionally embarked the Once Twice Melody Tour in 2022, in support of the album.
Background and recording
Following the release of the band's seventh studio album 7 (2018), which received critical acclaim, the band began recording their next album at Apple Orchard Studio in Baltimore.[1] It was then announced in February 2021 that they would contribute to arts company Meow Wolf's interactive exhibition Omega Mart, releasing a short film titled "Marin's Dreams" on April 22, 2021.[2] In the same month, the band revealed to Rolling Stone that they were thinking of working on their eighth album, adding that they would "like to get there".[3] In a September 2021 interview with 101.9 KINK FM, the band revealed that they were working on their album during the COVID-19 pandemic, adding that it would be released in 2022.[4] On November 9, 2021, the band announced the album as Once Twice Melody, and stated that it would be released in four chapters throughout four months.[5]
Musical style
Once Twice Melody is a double album, with its material being described as dream pop,[6]neo-psychedelia[7] and chamber pop.[8] Throughout the album, there are tracks without live drums, electronic songs without guitar, and "wandering and repetitive melodies", as described by Beach House; additionally, it is their first album where a live string ensemble was used and the first to be produced entirely by the band.[1] Split into four chapters, the band's lead vocalist Victoria Legrand explained to Consequence that there is not a "right" way to listen to the album, adding that "you can just get lost [in the album] how you want to".[9] "Runaway" uses a vocoder throughout the song and "Only You Know" is a shoegaze track,[10] while "Masquerade" and "Finale" have been described as "'80s synth-pop" tracks.[11]
Promotion and release
The first chapter for Once Twice Melody, Pink Funeral, was released on November 10, 2021, with the title track being released as its lead single on the same day.[12][13] Its second chapter, New Romance, was released on December 8, 2021,[14] with the third chapter, Masquerade, being released on January 19, 2022.[15] "Hurts to Love" was surprised released as a standalone single on February 14, 2022, to coincide with Valentine's Day, making it the album's second single.[16]Once Twice Melody was released in full for digital download and streaming, with the addition of cassette, CD and LP releases, on February 18, 2022, through Sub Pop and Bella Union[17] Lyric animations for each song were also uploaded onto YouTube.[18]
Once Twice Melody was released to universal acclaim from contemporary music critics. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the album received an average score of 84, based on 22 reviews, which indicates "universal acclaim".[25] Aggregator AnyDecentMusic? gave it 7.8 out of 10, based on their assessment of the critical consensus.[24]
Reviewing the album for AllMusic, Heather Phares claimed that, "Though Once Twice Melody is unapologetically lush even by Beach House's standards, the duo uses space creatively to express the beauty in sadness."[26] Stevie Chick of Mojo called it the band's "grandest vision yet", praising the "impassive beauty" of Legrand's vocals and comparing them to "'O Superman'-era Laurie Andersonserenades, or as if someone programmed AI to sing like Judee Sill."[6] Jason Anderson of Uncut commended the "stunning" cinematic quality of the first chapter and praised the album's "unexpected elements" for deftly counterbalancing the "grandeur and glamour from becoming sickly sweet." Uncut concluded that the album's "greatness lies not in its hugeness – it's in the duo's ability to create music that possesses the same intimacy regardless of its scope."[30]
Track listing
All tracks are written by Beach House.
Chapter 1. Pink Funeral
No.
Title
Length
1.
"Once Twice Melody"
4:44
2.
"Superstar"
6:08
3.
"Pink Funeral"
4:56
4.
"Through Me"
5:48
Chapter 2. New Romance
No.
Title
Length
5.
"Runaway"
4:23
6.
"ESP"
3:48
7.
"New Romance"
4:12
8.
"Over and Over"
7:11
Chapter 3. Masquerade
No.
Title
Length
9.
"Sunset"
3:59
10.
"Only You Know"
4:49
11.
"Another Go Around"
3:41
12.
"Masquerade"
4:42
13.
"Illusion of Forever"
3:49
Chapter 4. Modern Love Stories
No.
Title
Length
14.
"Finale"
4:34
15.
"The Bells"
4:30
16.
"Hurts to Love"
4:05
17.
"Many Nights"
4:16
18.
"Modern Love Stories"
4:53
Total length:
84:28
Personnel
Beach House – arrangement, performance; production, engineering; art direction
^ abcChick, Stevie (March 2022). "Beach House – Once Twice Melody: Baltimore duo transcend dream-pop with 18 tracks of mesmerising digital psychedelia". Mojo. No. 340. p. 83.
^ abAnderson, Jason (March 2022). "Beach House – Once Twice Melody: Baltimore duo's dream-pop swells to new proportions on masterful eighth album". Uncut. No. 298. p. 33.
