It is fair to say that when I first saw Beach House at the Bella Union 10th Anniversary shows at the Royal Festival Hall earlier this year I didn’t really get it. I felt that the venue and the event were just too big for a two-piece band, and a very odd choice to open the celebrations. However, what I should have realised that it was exactly the curveball a maverick label like Bella Union were always going to throw and I’d have only been disappointed if they had played it safe.

So I have the album in my hand now and I don’t know if I should stick it in the machine and risk being disappointed, or just pop it straight on the pile of sample CDs and carry on in with this fantasy that Bella Union always seem to get it right. Well guess what? This would be a pretty short review if I had taken option B, so all I have to say is sorry for the lack of faith.

As soon as opening track ‘Saltwater’ kicks things off I am reassured. I am hit with the substance to the songs that was lacking with just the two of them on stage. There is so much to the music that it takes several listens to get through a song and experience all the thrills held within. Guitars, drums, organs, and I have no idea what else, are all placed with great care and comfortably hold their place in each piece of work. The instruments seem to just wait for their moment and come forward for their “solo” and then just drop back to watch and admire the others perform; it really does feel that the music is alive. The style of music is best described as dreamy soundscapes with the often haunting, beautifully hushed and uplifting vocals from Victoria Legrand which fit perfectly. It is, however, when the vocals stop and the music takes over that you really start to understand what this duo are trying to say. Standout track ‘Auburn and Ivory’is a prime example; it possesses the most wonderful harpsichord finale I have ever heard – well, the only one I have ever heard…

Bella Union have managed to come up with yet another gem here, and along with Stephanie Dosen, Kissaway Trail and Fionn Regan, it is going to be hard to look past them to to win our label of the year title.

4/5