By Alexander Szeptycki

Once Twice Melody goes about refining rather than changing Beach House’s vision of dream pop.

At this point, after seven albums, it’s pretty easy to talk about the kind of music Beach House makes. Over the years the Baltimore duo Victoria LeGrand and Alex Scally have developed a dependable style of dream pop. On its eighth album, Once Twice Melody, the duo takes a deep dive into its familiar sound over a whopping four discs — an hour and twenty minutes of music. The gargantuan tracklist goes on and on, but that does not weaken Beach House maintaining its usual high standard of excellent songwriting and production.

Once Twice Melody goes about refining rather than changing the group’s surrealistic pop sound. From the start of the album, the titular “Once Twice Melody” opens with a glossy wall of synths that forms an ambient foundation for the track. Soft melodies slowly emerge from the haze, twisting over a drumbeat that lends an industrial edge to the sheen. “Out in the summer sun/She was the only one,” sings LeGrand. Heavenly strings echo her words, lending weight to her gossamer voiced cadences. What makes the hazy atmospherics so compelling? A rich variety of sonic textures: the glossy underlying foundation, the shimmering melodies, the drums given just enough crunch to give the song the necessary bite.

This rich sonic landscape is not new for Beach House, but it is as lulling as ever on Once Twice Melody. On “Runaway,” drums and synths run in step together, creating a percussive opening that underscores bright melodies and timely chord hits. It’s a vibrant mix of sounds, a welcomely energetic entry on a track list that is crowded with slow paced tunes. “Superstar” pits the gritty pulse of a distorted guitar line against the cosmic airiness of the vocal melody: “It’s too late now to say goodbye/The stars were there in our eyes.” There’s so much going on here, but each facet of the production contributes to an organically rich soundscape.

This dedication to nuanced inclusion adds invigorating heft to the best songs on the album. There’s a cold, space age beauty to songs like “Over and Over” as the synths slowly swell before exploding over the slow, alluringly disembodied voice that dominates the album. “A flicker in the sky/Reflects the dying light,” sings LeGrand. She’s contemplating life cycles here: the life and death of flowers, of the sun, of the universe. It’s a lonely meditation from a corner of the universe, an example of everything Beach House does so well.

The quality of the compositions on Once Twice Melody is uplifted by the few tracks that deviate from the band’s formula. Look no further than “New Romance,” one of the finest songs Beach House have ever written. There is considerable vitality in this tune, which is driven by a thumping beat that cascades into choruses that aren’t reluctant to boom. “Take my chances, new romances,” sings LeGrand over a wandering synth run that empowers the vocal and percussion crescendos. It’s the album’s exhilarating high point; the old mingles with flickers of invention.

Still, there are some limitations to this dependency. At times, Beach House lets its songs fade into the spacey atmosphere. For instance, the twinkling lullaby “ESP” is all soft guitar plucking and string passages played at a snail’s pace (even by this album’s slow-mo standards). The emotional scale has shrunk; LeGrand’s voice is a lot closer in the mix as she sings “What everybody knows/Not everybody shows.” The song never develops beyond a languid state of static ambience. Given the album’s hefty tracklist, tunes like these become an exercise in self-indulgence. In isolation, “Illusion of Forever” would be unremarkable enough: its gossamer synth lines, echoing vocals, and soft drums are familiar and effective. But, by the time the listener hears it, approaching disc four, the tune falls flat.

So it makes sense that the best moments on Once Twice Melody come when Beach House tinkers with its own formula. The eerie sound of “Pink Funeral” stands out immediately: the standard wall of glossy noise has been given a discordant edge. When the drums arrive they are harsh and metallic, twisting the song away from the gentle spirit of the album’s wide-eyed opening. The duo sing in unison on the chorus: “Tears through a white lace veil/pink funeral.” Cosmic wonder has flipped into a dirge. “Masquerade” takes on a goth feel; its chimes and kinetic drums evoke strobe-lit dance floors as well as the spirit of the new wave. “She comes in dressed like Sunday” — this stark tonal shift is refreshing. “Finale” kicks off the fourth disc with jangly harpsichord bursts that cut through some dim background noise — another jarring but exciting contrast. These moments, while few and far between, help to mitigate the bright sheen that covers much of the rest of the album.

Once Twice Melody is a restatement of what Beach House have always done well as a band. As usual, the sparkling, spacey pop sounds are meticulously crafted and painstakingly layered. They can be either gentle or powerful when necessary — without the band having to change its customary approach. So, while the album can drag at times — it is possible to have too much of the same old good thing — Beach House doing what it does best easily overcomes the occasional recycling.

Alex Szeptycki is a writer from Charlottesville, VA. He recently graduated from Stanford University, majoring in American Studies with a focus in contemporary art and pop culture. He’s currently working as a freelance writer at the Arts Fuse while navigating post-grad life in a pandemic.