Beach House – review

The early 1990s shoegaze scene is not widely regarded as British music's finest moment. Peopled by bands such as Lush and Slowdive – who crafted sumptuous, serene art-rock that was heavy on non-specific introspection and FX pedals – it was to prove a mere footnote to the era of acid house and Britpop. Twenty years on, the Baltimore duo Beach House are doing a sterling job of rehabilitating that much-maligned scene's ethos. Their 2010 breakthrough album, Teen Dream, and its followup, Bloom , are immaculate exercises in exquisite dream-pop that remind you why Shoegaze Mark I had critics gushing about "cathedrals of sound". It is not easy to transfer such multi-layered opulence to the stage, where singer Victoria Legrand and guitarist Alex Scally inevitably sacrifice some production gloss for a sharper, edgier sound. The pair are silhouettes at the back of the stage for the spectral opening song, Wild , Legrand hunching over her keyboard and under her fringe as she huskily sings: "Your past is what will catch you." Shorn of their studio shimmer, their material can seem distinctly one-paced. Legrand sounds as imperious and dead-eyed as Lana Del Rey as she recites the deliciously languid Norway and Other People, while the new track Lazuli serves as a reminder that the vast majority of the first wave of shoegazers took their cues from the Cocteau Twins . Beach House exit with the new album's opener, Myth , with Legrand sighing "Drifting in and out", and it's an accurate summary of your reaction to this diverting but rarely compelling gig. That's the irony of Beach House: their music may strive for depth, but it's so easy to let it wash over you.