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Depression Cherry
2015 studio album by Beach House From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Depression Cherry is the fifth studio album by the American dream pop duo Beach House. It was released on August 28, 2015, through Sub Pop in the United States, Bella Union in Europe, Mistletone Records in Australia, Hostess Entertainment in Japan and Arts & Crafts in Mexico. The album was arranged entirely by the duo, while also co-producing the album alongside Chris Coady.
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Reacting to their dissatisfaction with using live drums on tour to play songs from their previous album, Bloom (2012), Beach House returned to a simpler style of dream pop arrangements for Depression Cherry, relying on less usage of live drums and instead constructing around drum machine rhythms, similar to the musical styles of their first two studio albums. The duo began thinking of musical ideas in 2012 and began writing songs from the album between autumn of 2013 and 2014. The entire album was recorded at Studio in the Country in Bogalusa, Louisiana, from November 2014 to January 2015.
To promote Depression Cherry, "Sparks" was released as the album's lead single on July 1, 2015, with "PPP" and "Beyond Love" being released as the second and third singles on August 6, 2015. It was further supported with a concert tour from August to December 2015. Upon release, the album received mostly positive reviews from critics, who likened the musical approach to the band's first two studio albums. It debuted at number eight on the Billboard 200, with 27,000 copies sold. Less than two months after releasing Depression Cherry, Beach House followed it up with their sixth album, Thank Your Lucky Stars.
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Background
On May 15, 2012, Beach House released their fourth studio album Bloom, which was supported by its successful lead single "Myth".[1][2] The album attained critical praise from several publications,[3] additionally being named one of the best albums of 2012, and commercial success, debuting at number seven on the US Billboard 200 with 41,000 copies sold.[4] After releasing the album and completing touring for Bloom, the group took a six-month break.[5] Uncertain about their future, singer/keyboardist Victoria Legrand said, "I didn't feel creative at all... I just thought well, maybe I'll never have another musical idea."[6]
She added, "I just personally felt I needed a couple of months of just not doing anything, I didn't have thoughts."[5] Legrand found herself frustrated and limited creatively by the presence of a live drum set on tour to play Bloom's songs because of "the noise it creates and how much space it fills".[5] Guitarist Alex Scally concurred, saying, "There was a transparent feeling, [the songs] didn't feel as nuanced."[5] On May 26, 2015, the band announced their fifth studio album, Depression Cherry, additionally revealing its tracklist and album artwork.[7]
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Recording and production
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Though some of Depression Cherry's musical ideas originated in 2012, Beach House wrote the majority of the record between the autumn of 2013 and 2014; "10:37" was one of the first songs to be written during this period.[8] The album was recorded at Studio in the Country in Bogalusa, Louisiana over two months,[9][10] from November 2014 to January 2015.[11] It was co-produced by Chris Coady, who worked on the band's previous two records, Teen Dream (2010) and Bloom.[12] Prior to joining the band in the studio, they sent him phone recordings of some of their in-progress songs.[8]
For the recording of "Sparks", the band used a keyboard that they bought in Texas during the recording sessions for Bloom.[13] Additionally, the song contains a running vocal loop that was "accidentally" captured at a soundcheck in Bristol, England.[14] For the song "Days of Candy", they hired eight singers from Pearl River Community College to create a 24-part choir.[9] After completing that song and "Levitation", the band knew they had the album's closing and opening tracks, respectively, and considered the record completed.[8] The album was mixed at Sunset Sound in Hollywood, California, except "Beyond Love", which was mixed at Sonic Ranch in Tornillo, Texas.[15]
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Musical style
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According to the band, Depression Cherry is a return to the simpler style of dream pop from their first two albums, stating in a press release on the Sub Pop website, that "live drums play [...] a far lesser role" and that within the album, they "continue to let ourselves evolve while fully ignoring the commercial context in which we exist".[16] Kevin Warwick of The A.V. Club commented that several tracks from the album are "constructed on rudimentary programmed rhythms as opposed to live studio drumming".[17] Tim Jonze of The Guardian also stated that the album "lacks the bigger pop moments of their last two albums, Bloom and Teen Dream", due to a lack of live drums, though he considered that the band "increase their impressive ability" with this musical approach.[18][19] The album also relies on organ chords and slide guitar licks.[20]
The album's opener, "Levitation", begins with a "high-F♯ drone" which crossfades into a "lovely saturated D chord", as well as a "tap-tapping electronic rhythm", with the song itself being said to succeed the 2012 track "Irene", featured on the band's previous album Bloom.[21][22] It then progresses onto the following track, "Sparks", which begins with a vocal loop played at the start.[23] The loop is then interrupted by a distorted guitar, thus being described as a shoegaze track.[24] Throughout the entire song, a distorted organ and percussion are also used.[25][26] Transitioning onto the third track, "Space Song", it opens with an organ sound and leaps into a sliding guitar and an "8-bit keyboard" arpeggio which run throughout the entire track.[27][19] "Beyond Love", its fourth track, features a slide guitar and accompanying drum machine rhythms.[28][20]
Promotion and release
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On May 26, 2015, Beach House announced Depression Cherry along with tour dates supporting the album.[11] Vinyl and compact disc copies of the album feature a cover lined with red velvet. A limited edition "Loser Edition" of the album was released on clear vinyl record.[29] On July 1, 2015, Beach House released the album's lead single, "Sparks", along with its supporting visualizer.[13] On the same day, the band performed the song on SiriusXMU.[30] On August 6 of the same year, "PPP" and "Beyond Love" were released as the album's second and third singles.[31] The album's three supporting singles were later published through the band's website and could be accessed through the "Single Finder" feature, which allows one to choose three of their favorite songs from the band's past catalog and depending on their choices, it determines which single would likely be their favorite.[32][33] On August 19, nine days before the release of Depression Cherry, NPR Music made a stream of the album available online.[34]
The album debuted at number eight on the Billboard 200, with 27,000 copies sold in its first week.[35] It also debuted within the top 20 in eight other countries, which are Belgium's Flanders region (13),[36] Canada (16),[37] Denmark (20),[38] Netherlands (16),[39] Portugal (12),[40] Scotland (18),[38] and the United Kingdom (17).[41] About two months later, on October 7 of the same year, Beach House announced their sixth studio album Thank Your Lucky Stars, which was stated to be a follow-up, but not a companion, to Depression Cherry or a "surprise or B-sides".[42][43] The follow-up album was additionally written from July to November 2014 and recorded at the same time as Depression Cherry.[44] Beginning around 2020, "Space Song", the album's third track, attained virality on TikTok and was later featured in the 2022 Netflix-original television series Wednesday.[45][46] After its appearance on the series, the song earned over four million streams in the United States by early December 2022.[47] On April 12, 2023, the song was certified double-platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), for sales of 2,000,000 certified units in the United States, while Depression Cherry was certified gold a month later.[45][48]
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Critical reception
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Depression Cherry received mostly positive reviews from contemporary music critics. At Metacritic, which assigns a weighted mean rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the album received an average score of 76, based on 34 reviews, which indicates "generally favorable reviews".[50] Aggregator AnyDecentMusic? gave it 7.5 out of 10, based on their assessment of the critical consensus.[49]
Eric Renner Brown of Entertainment Weekly complimented Legrand's vocal structures and the instrumentals within the album, calling them "exquisite".[51] Awarding the album with the "Best New Music" accolade, Jayson Greene of Pitchfork praised the album's instrumentals, classifying them as "ethereal", and concluded that the band had "never sounded exactly this full and soaring before".[22] Tim Jonze of The Guardian stated that the album "lacks the bigger pop moments of their last two albums, Bloom and Teen Dream", although he approves the band's musical approach and stated that the band "increase their impressive ability to sound like they’re whispering each song".[19]
AllMusic's Heather Phares likened the album's musical approach to the band's earlier studio albums and said that it's "a grower that demands and rewards close listening -- especially under headphones".[18] Will Hermes of Rolling Stone called it "A formula that might seem limiting feels instead like it can contain entire worlds".[55] In a mixed review, John Calvert of NME claimed that the album can "becoming increasingly uninteresting", though he further stated that "the duo stick closely to their signature steady pacing and two-piece dynamic, with diminishing returns".[53]
Accolades
Depression Cherry was named as one of the best albums of 2015 by several music publications, including Blare Magazine,[57] Diffuser.fm,[58] and Under the Radar,[59] who placed it in their top 10, while other publications such as No Ripcord,[60] Paste,[61] Pretty Much Amazing,[62] and Sputnikmusic have placed it in their top 20.[63]
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Track listing
All lyrics written by Victoria Legrand; all music composed and arranged by Beach House.
Personnel
Credits adapted from the liner notes of Depression Cherry.[15]
Beach House
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Additional musicians
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Production
Artwork
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Charts
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Certifications
References
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