Depression Cherry

Beach House - Depression Cherry
Critic Score
Based on 44 reviews
2015 Ratings: #129 / 1021
Year End Rank: #34
User Score
2015 Rank: #37
Liked by 594 people
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CRITIC REVIEWS

100
God Is in the TV
An excellent addition to the formidable Beach House canon.
91
Entertainment Weekly
On their latest, they go grandiose with weighty tunes that explore love and melancholy. Singer Victoria Legrand has a refreshingly unshowy croon that’s one of the most seductive in pop, and her gorgeous synth drones and guitarist Alex Scally’s effects-laden riffs are exquisite.
91
A.V. Club
The band’s understanding of their own head-in-the-clouds aesthetic and knowing where to sew in (or cut out) the stitches to keep their sound in a constant, albeit low-key, flux results in much more of a mesmerizing experience than would changing directions entirely.
90
Drowned in Sound

This is music that lingers in the mind and seeps into the bones. And while you can view it as melancholic, Scally and Legrand never dwell on sentimentality or allow anything to sink into despondency.

90
XS Noize
They do not shy away from confronting big questions and deep emotions, all the while producing beautiful music and make it seem so simple. Few artists can present such introspective thoughts about our existence in such a beautiful package, but Beach House does it time and again.
90
The Sydney Morning Herald

With their slow-tempo songs and Victoria Legrand's mournful vocals, Beach House are regarded - even by those who love them - as a bummer. But if their fifth album, Depression Cherry, has a singular feeling, it's one of "uplift".

90
Spill Magazine
The silky layers of guitars, organs, synths, and velvety vocals will put you in a trance and keep you there until the album fades out.
90
Exclaim!

Anyone who doesn't fall for Depression Cherry's hypnotic splendour probably just isn't a Beach House fan, or didn't live with the album long enough. But those who do will recognize this album as the sweeping, grand gesture they've been working up to giving us for the last nine years.

85
The 405
There's no faulting the album - it's stunning and well worth your time and money, but it's not their masterpiece, their seminal album.
85
The Line of Best Fit

Depression Cherry is a beautiful record about darker times being a point in a journey, not the final destination. It shows its creators have a level of wisdom beyond their years.  

84
Pitchfork
With every album, someone observes—rightly—that the band has never sounded exactly this full and soaring before.
82
Sputnikmusic

Depression Cherry is a startlingly easy record to get lost in. Some have called this a detriment, causing the record to blur together, to which I say: isn’t that the point?

80
FLOOD Magazine
“Depression Cherry” is ornery and pretty at the same time.
80
Spectrum Culture

Almost a decade into their career, Beach House have never departed from their initial sound but have also never rested on their laurels, and with Depression Cherry they betray not only flashes of musical maturity but a deeper outlook on life as well.

80
The Telegraph
These are songs that soak into you. Repeated plays deepening their roots while the splashy surfaces remain refreshing.
80
Northern Transmissions

Rather than hoping for Beach House to make a bold step forward, it’s best just to appreciate the duo for what it is: an unadventurous band that has perfected a specific brand of hazy, serene dream pop and has no interest in changing.

80
GIGsoup
They are a band who do not wish to provide answers, they just emote.
80
AllMusic

It's a grower that demands and rewards close listening -- especially under headphones, where it unfolds like a spell cast just for the listener.

80
Crack Magazine
Of course there’s ultimately a pervasive sense of melancholia to all of this that tempers any elation but then, nobody would have it any other way. Yet again, Beach House make sadness sound endlessly alluring.
80
NOW Magazine

Baltimore dream pop two-piece Beach House refine their sound by paring back to the essentials: strong, foregrounded melodies beautifully sung by Victoria Legrand floating over Alex Scally's billowy cloud-bed of guitar reverb, an undisruptive backbeat and synthetic pulses. 

80
Record Collector

On the whole, Depression Cherry pulls off the rare trick of stripping the duo’s sound back and embracing simplicity, while actually sounding more sophisticated and accomplished than their previous work.

80
Uncut

By reducing the scope and rediscovering the value of nuance, Beach House end up sounding bigger and better than ever before.

80
The Guardian

It lacks the bigger pop moments of their last two albums, Bloom and Teen Dream, yet by paring down the drums and allowing themselves to play more quietly, the Baltimore duo somehow increase their impressive ability to sound like they’re whispering each song directly into your eardrum.

80
Clash
Fifth effort ‘Depression Cherry’ is no different, and whilst haters could accuse the duo of being a one trick pony, you must ask yourself if you truly care when the pony is so damn gorgeous.
80
Time Out London

The whole fuzzy, sepia synth-drenched thing sits between melancholic and sugary.

80
SPIN

It’s an approach they’ve taken time and again, but Depression Cherry’s particular non-specifics feel as full of breath and life as anything they’ve ever done — an album-length sigh as eloquent as a manifesto.

80
The Skinny
You have to admire a band that sees dreaming as a matter of principle. Beach House’s fifth album shows the Baltimore duo turning back the clock with a minimalist collection of songs that meditate on transience and loss.
80
American Songwriter

Like the band’s 2008 album Devotion, Depression Cherry is an impressive showcase of the kind of beauty that two musicians are capable of when stripped down to a bare-bones approach. It’s worked before, and it works again here.

80
The Irish Times
There are minor changes – Legrand now owns the songs, rather than sounding like she rented them; there is less mournfulness – but overall it’s seductive, slo-mo breathtaking business as usual.
77
Paste

Depression Cherry doesn’t always have the emotional heft, or melodic impact, of their 2010 breakthrough Teen Dream or its follow-up, 2012’s Bloom, but the duo’s knack for crafting thoughtful, enveloping songs makes their return more than welcome.

75
Pretty Much Amazing

Minor sonic updates don’t entirely compensate for the lack of deep cuts, but it’s hard to fault Depression Cherry for playing to Beach House’s well-established strengths.

75
Under the Radar

The band shows growth, though not all of it positive, while expanding on their signature sound.

70
Rolling Stone

The Baltimore duo's fifth album sticks to that signature sound, and go figure: A formula that might seem limiting feels instead like it can contain entire worlds.

70
musicOMH

Minor nitpicking aside, this is a Beach House record that sounds, above all else, like a Beach House record.

60
The Arts Desk

With Depression Cherry, Beach House have pulled off what ought to be an impossible tautology – bringing directness to the avowedly diffuse.

60
PopMatters

Some minor, targeted deviation from the formula would have pushed Depression Cherry to an unprecedented level of novelty for the band, but as it stands, the record falls into a creeping, achromatic daze far more ambitious than it is visionary.

60
The Observer

If Depression Cherry sounds as though they are stuck in a groove, well, they are. But it is a groove worth wallowing in.

60
The Needle Drop
Beach House comes through with their most upfront album yet, almost completely doing away with their trademark atmosphere.
60
Slant Magazine

Between an arresting start and a lavish finish, the album loses steam. Billed as a back-to-the-basics approach, Depression Cherry is often languid and shapeless, its songwriting lacking the passionate force of 2012's breathtaking Bloom.

60
DIY
By saying no to the traits that defined their previous LPs, Beach House have wound up in strange territory.
58
Consequence of Sound

The problem here is that ambition is villainized, when in reality getting out of their comfort zone is exactly what has allowed Beach House to surpass their bedroom pop beginnings and exceed anyone’s expectations. In returning to the familiar, Depression Cherry feels uninspired.

50
NME

At its heart, ‘Depression Cherry' is an album about the wonder of true happiness, with space, or the infinite used as a metaphor for love ... But it’s difficult to share the singer's awe when the musical backdrop sounds so tired.

MiaWatterson
100

What the hell, the first time I listened to this (like 1 year ago) I didn't enjoy it :0000
Edit: JuSt LiKe AlMoSt EvErYtHiNg I lIkE nOw

JoaoSantos
70

Depression Cherry is not an album that does anything new for it's genre but it's such an immersive experience. I don't want to analyze this album too much, it's not really an album to
analyze, it's an album to fall in love with.

I haven't felt peace of mind for a long long time. For a while, my head has been feeling grey, full of useless thoughts and stupid ideas. As soon as I pressed play on this album, as soon as I layed down in my bead, as soon as I closed my eyes, my mind cleared. And I ... read more

laz456
100

Yep- I've thought about this a lot and I'm happy with this score.

I saw Beach House last night and it was so fun! As I've been listening to their discography, I've decided this is my favorite album of theirs, which I was pretty surprised by. I just always thought Teen Dream, Bloom, and 7 were their best records. And while I love those albums, I think this one is their most consistent album, with every song adding a lot to the experience of the record. This album is catchy, it's emotionally ... read more

MusicloverZW
84

Individually, most of the tracks don't stand out but as a collection the album really sucks one into this trance dream like state that just engulfs and envelopes one into the soundscape. Overall I feel Depression Cherry is an essential in the dream pop genre
Favorite tracks: Space song, PPP, Levitation
Least favorite: Bluebird (the tapping in the background feels a little out of place)

Bip_P
100

First 1st listen in a while to immediately show me why it's rated a 100

iamduckm
90

Bitch house made it clear once : This album is a masterpiece

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Track List

1Levitation
5:54
91
2Sparks
5:21
88
3Space Song
5:20
97
4Beyond Love
4:25
87
510:37
3:48
82
6PPP
6:08
91
7Wildflower
3:39
88
8Bluebird
3:55
84
9Days of Candy
6:15
88
Total Length: 44 minutes
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Added on: May 26, 2015