Thank Your Lucky Stars feels like an opportunity for Beach House to sum up and celebrate the ways they’ve matured since their self-titled 2006 debut. “She’s So Lovely,” another highlight, is a pained tribute to a mysterious beauty: “From the way that her eyes are shaped/And it’s making me sick/With her head on my shoulder,” Legrand sings, tinging her words with an uneasy undercurrent that echoes in one deliberately dissonant keyboard note. Legrand’s droning keyboard part changes little over the song’s six and a half minutes, twisting and turning through strange harmonies on its way to a resolution that never quite comes - as good a summation as any of what Beach House does best. The album’s crown jewel, “Elegy to the Void,” feels tempestuous and trancelike at the same time. Instead of releasing another mammoth effort like Bloom, they've delivered two smaller-scale triumphs that can be appreciated separately or together.Right-Wing Influencers Just Found Their Favorite New Country Song In its own way, Thank Your Lucky Stars is just as rewarding as Depression Cherry, and arguably more immediate. Later, the gorgeous finale "Somewhere Tonight" proves Legrand and Scally are among the few 21st century musicians capable of updating '50s slow dance swoon without a hint of schmaltz or irony. "Elegy to the Void" - which might be the most Beach House-esque song title ever - is elevated by a stratospheric guitar solo. Nevertheless, the album's most beautiful moments are unmistakably Beach House. Elsewhere, Scally and Legrand get (relatively) more eclectic: "Common Girl" sounds like Nico fronting Broadcast, while "The Traveller" borrows some of Goldfrapp's gliding elegance. "All Your Yeahs" is one of Beach House's most driven songs, charting a more purposeful course from brooding to joyous than they've taken in the past, while "One Thing"'s Velvet Underground-like thump is surprisingly heavy. On "She's So Lovely," Legrand traces a relationship's decay with small shifts, the hook "All I have to do/Is everything for you" souring into "All I have to do/Is stay away from you." Interestingly, Thank Your Lucky Stars' more down-to-earth approach allows the duo to cover more musical ground. The focus on her voice also spotlights the album's lyrics in a way unique for Beach House. There's a lot of heart in these songs, particularly in Legrand's vocals: on the aptly named "Rough Song," she's raw and unfettered, a sharp contrast to Depression Cherry's ethereal purity. Even the old saying the duo chose for the album title hints that this is a less abstract affair than Depression Cherry. Where its predecessor floated by in a beautiful blur that made the most of Scally and Legrand's impressionistic powers, Thank Your Lucky Stars is a collection of shorter, distinct songs rather than a mood piece. Stars' songs were written after Depression Cherry, and express the simplicity Beach House craved after the massive-sounding Bloom in a very different way. Arriving just two months after Depression Cherry, Thank Your Lucky Stars was recorded at the same time as that album while it's tempting to say the duo should've combined the best songs from each into one work - or released them as a double album - their vibes are distinct. Though "Majorette" soon unfolds into the swirling, twinkling, snow-globe beauty for which Beach House are well-known - some might say too well-known - the moment captures the tiny yet notable ways Victoria Legrand and Alex Scally tinker with their sound on their second release of 2015. It's a small, but significant, detail that live drums are the first thing listeners hear on Thank Your Lucky Stars.
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