Hulking Beach Boy

Last week, JADEDPUNKHULK - for my money the best Hulk Twitter handle - posted:

Being about as far removed from hipsterdom as any 46-year-old Dad (more about Dad Rock another time), I could only come up with one band JADEDPUNKHULK might have meant; I had to look up other ones. Though I do really like the one that did come to mind: Beach House. Of course, I've only discovered them recently, well after the hipsters have probably moved on to other things.

Like a Beach House-Seals & Crofts mashup as remixed by an underground Finnish DJ.

Actually, that has promise. If it does exist, could someone let me know?

Maybe it's my age - I'm a bit obsessed these days on the whole growing old thing - but I've really been enjoying Beach House, especially their new album Bloom. It's mellow, quiet, trippy, dreamy. Hence the label Dream Pop. And did I mention mellow?



I don't mind mellow these days. Beach House can trace their roots back to the Nico songs on The Velvet Underground & Nico. The gauzy morning after Lou's heroin nightmare. Or the light that preceded  The Black Angel's Death Song.  I used to feel like I was tolerating the Nico songs to get to the darker, edgier material of VU. I wanted the dirty city in all its awfulness. Now I think I prefer that quiet haze to the the muck. Again, that getting older thing.



Julee Cruise also jumps to mind when I hear Beach House. I think it must be some sort of requirement for Dream Pop bands to channel her style when singing - females and males. Put on Beach House and I'm thinking a big waterfall in the Pacific Northwest. And trees. And fog. And backwards talking midgets.



But Julee Cruise's music didn't really hold up too well outside the world of David Lynch. I rushed out to get Floating Into The Night back in the early 90s. Without that waterfall? It didn't get a lot of time on the turntable.

Beach House holds up much better. Bloom has strong songwriting and a sound that floats throughout a room. Their first three albums are less produced yet still carry a lushness a much louder band just can't recreate. I can't tell you what any of the songs are about, but I know how they feel. It's fall, it's cloudy, and the chill sprays off the water.

Twenty years ago I wasn't looking for this kind of beach house. I wanted a louder, angrier house. One where JADEDPUNKHULK might feel at home. Now I like the quiet a lot more.

(Oh shit...have I just relegated Beach House to Dad Rock...?)