Beach House - Teen Dream
Critic Score
Based on 36 reviews
2010 Ratings: #28 / 924
Year End Rank: #5
User Score
2010 Rank: #10All Time: #449
Liked by 557 people
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CRITIC REVIEWS

100
The Irish Times

Shimmering and evocative from start to finish, Teen Dream is an album that will haunt you for many months to come.

100
AllMusic

Though it's not as eclectic and whimsical as their earlier work, Teen Dream is some of their most beautiful music, and reaffirms that they're the among the best purveyors of languidly lovelorn songs since Mazzy Star.

100
American Songwriter

With their third full-length effort, Beach House forces the listener to re-examine pop music status quo while taking another giant stride as a band.

91
Entertainment Weekly

On their third LP, Teen Dream, they evolve at last, adding more variety behind Victoria Legrand’s wonderfully weary vocals.

91
A.V. Club

Teen Dream is deeper in hue than its predecessors. Its blues are bluer, even while warmer tones abound, and Scally’s guitar emotes as lithely as the voice it dances with.

90
DIY

With ‘Teen Dream’, Scally and Legrand have created absorbing, atmospheric music that never strains for significance or seriousness, but is affecting all the same.

90
Pitchfork

This is both the most diverse and most listenable of their three full-lengths, and yet it never seems like a compromise. 

90
Consequence of Sound

Beach House is clearly ready to step out from the shadows and play timeless music intended for dreamers and romantics.

90
Paste

Dream is a go-for-broke collection that not only creates and sustains a hi-fi drowse-pop drama throughout its 10 beguiling songs, but comes across like a logical and gorgeous extension of all the band’s previous dreams.

90
Prefix

The greatest success of Teen Dream ... is its thematic connection ... Teen Dream is concerned with nostalgia for love lost with time; the kind of love that can be explained only by harmonious moans; and the kind of devotion their last album only touched on.

90
NME

They’ve made an absolutely magical record – the jagged edges of their past have been smoothed by the sea, making ‘Teen Dream’ a soft shore gem in the crown of the great chronicles of youth.

90
Slant Magazine

Like “Norway,” a mini masterpiece of vocal and musical interplay, Teen Dream boldly complies the subtle and the overt.

88
Pretty Much Amazing
It is, without a doubt, Beach House’s best work, and deserves to be recognized as such.
85
The 405
Whether it's actually getting the gist of the heartbreaking/bizarre/haunting lyrics, just getting lost in the full sound of the record, or hearing something new going on in the background, this record has something for everyone.
84
Coke Machine Glow

Teen Dream is just such a fantastic pop record because it never seems to try to be: it’s almost as if the duo had intended to make another mopey shoegazing affair and accidentally stumbled upon something transcendent.

80
Clash

‘Teen Dream’ suggests that this is a band with the rarest of touches, familiar in their frailty yet fathomless in their depths.

80
Sputnikmusic

It’s a shimmery, escapist release, without a doubt, but as anything more than a mild sleeping aid, Teen Dream fails to rise above its genre.

80
Billboard

Baltimore-based dream-pop duo Beach House continues to master its craft of producing ethereal melodies and reverberating background instrumentation.

80
Uncut

Teen Dream finds the duo resolving to present their songs in somewhat firmer strokes. Nothing rocks, exactly, but organs coo in sharper focus, drum machines bear with added vigour, and an eerie disquiet occasionally linger.

80
NOW Magazine

Whereas previous efforts embellished dark, distant slumber sounds, Teen Dream finds the duo maturing into friendly pop.

80
Spectrum Culture

Teen Dream will be pleasantly familiar to fans of their first two albums, but it also offers some subtle changes.

80
Q Magazine

This record ... makes an indelible mark.

80
Evening Standard
The slow-burning nature of the songs means that mainstream popularity may remain elusive, but Beach House are certainly a secret worth knowing about.
80
Alternative Press

They occupy an ethereal wonderland of their own design on Teen Dream, a place where '80s soft rock mingles with slow-pop soliloquies, producing an oscillating, supernal bliss both sparkling and somber.

80
No Ripcord

Even if there’s that wistful, pastoral-like imagery to their sound, much of the tracks stray to their own beats, in desperate search of distinction. Instead of modest waltzes and looped drum machines, there’s an evident maturity in the way the production unveils itself as richer and far more multifaceted.

80
SPIN

On their third album, those feelings now sound like actual songs, with swelling choruses and an all-encompassing ache.

80
PopMatters
This strain of music might seem too safe for some, but its consistency is a virtue -- around which Beach House has developed a signature sound.
80
musicOMH

It’s an incredibly rewarding listen, even if the self-observing anxiety that’s writ large throughout means it doesn’t quite reach the lofty heights to which its creators have bravely aspired.

80
Tiny Mix Tapes

Beach House have reached the point in their career where achieving grand melodic climaxes seems to come to them effortlessly, and on Teen Dream the climaxes are as thrilling as ever before.

70
Rolling Stone

They're more radiant than ever on their third disc, particularly on songs like "Zebra," with background chorales swooping over stately guitar plucking.

70
God Is in the TV
From the slim skiffle beat of Used To Be, supplemented by its bouncing piano, to the minimalist power-balladry of Real Love and back to the smoky atmosphere of tracks like Lover Of Mine, the album is full of dream-pop gems.
70
Drowned in Sound

It’s shot through with more than a handful of heartstoppingly wonderful moments, it vastly improves on the Devotion, and heralds the arrival as Legrand as one of the finest singers in modern indie.

67
Beats Per Minute

They’re refining their craft, producing some of their most bewitching material yet, but the rest of it feels like they’re merely spinning their wheels while they wait for more interesting ideas to come along.

60
Mojo

Teen Dream is a lovely album, but there's more to admire here than to actually love. Oddly, that may not be a problem.

40
The Guardian
With their third album, the Baltimore duo of Victoria Legrand and Alex Scally throw themselves on the ever-growing pile of American bands going for the heartstrings via a kind of wide-eyed, epic psych-pop.
40
FACT Magazine

Those looking for the next faintly interesting band from across the pond will be disappointed by Beach House’s muted sonic conservatism – much of Teen Dream props itself too readily upon a kind of medicated numbness

UltimateLifeFrm
95

This makes me yearn for the past!

Released in January 2010, the American duo Beach House's 3rd album (their first on the record label Sub Pop) received acclaim & became one of the best albums of the year, which that reception is well deserved in my opinion because this is beautiful.

When I heard Bloom back in January this year, I just had a warm aura of comfort & nostalgia bloom around me as I listened to it. It gradually became one of my favourite albums because of that aformentioned ... read more

PipePanic
71

(Band Binge: Beach House Part Three of Eight)

Guys. It's clicked.

Oh thank god this was good. I was worried to death that I wouldn't like this album. After how high my hopes were for their last two albums, the letdown (aside from a few really good tracks) was devastating. I was fully expecting for this album to follow in the same vein and continue to give me pretty nicely produced sludge-pop...what I didn't expect was for this album to actually connect with me in any way.

I think I am ... read more

MiaWatterson
100

Oh, look, it's my 400th rating! 400 shitty numbers!
Honestly, I've never felt that connected with music styles like Shoegaze, Dream Pop and Psychadelic Pop.
I've been spending more time listening to it and that's just... unique.
Ah, yeah! I love Beach House, damn!

Edit: who am I kidding?! This is a 10

Scusislayer24
100

It’d be a lie to tell you Beach House has not consistently dropped 100% albums over and over throughout the entirety of their career. While teen dream is an earlier release of the duo, there is no doubt, this album is drawing up 10’s all across the board.

Nukeproofbear
100

This is the best dream pop album of all time(yes for me its better then heaven or las vegas).Its just so beautiful. Every song is a masterpiece to the ears. Its a silky and smooth album that has some of the best vocal preformances of all time.

Maecki
94

Teen Dream by Dream Pop Geniuses Beach House marks the beginning of the legendary run they would undergo in the 2010s. Nostalgia, Bitterness, A sprinkle of escapism and a longing for something bigger, something greater all thrown together in a big pot ready to serve. Stuff all your troubles in a bag pack, take a walk in the park, throw on your headphones and let Victoria's voice be a beacon of inspiration. Always offering advice but never condemning.

Absolute masterpiece and milestone of ... read more

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Track List

1Zebra
4:48
92
2Silver Soul
4:58
95
3Norway
3:54
90
4Walk In the Park
5:22
92
5Used to Be
3:58
89
6Lover of Mine
5:06
88
7Better Times
4:23
86
810 Mile Stereo
5:03
93
9Real Love
5:20
83
10Take Care
5:48
93
Total Length: 48 minutes
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