Beach House is back, baby! Get ready for the micro-dosed, four-chapter release of Beach House’s eighth studio album “Once Twice Melody.”

Dream-Pop Sovereign Returns

Fans of the Baltimore-based dream-pop duo could not be more thrilled. After three torturous years since their last album release “7” in 2018, Beach House has returned with their pandemic-produced, and first-ever self-produced, album, “Once Twice Melody.”

The Beach House duo, self-proclaimed “musical soulmates,” is composed of singer and multi-instrumentalist Victoria Lagrand and multi-instrumentalist Alex Scally on backup vocals. Beach House has been creating music for 17 glorious years, perfecting their dreamy, electronica-shoegaze, synth-pop sound and taking their place at the top of the dream-pop pyramid. 

Since their beginning in 2004, Beach House has released numerous tracks igniting their fame, such as their hit “Myth” from the cult-coveted album “Bloom,” as well as their top-streamed supernal track “Space Song” from their album “Depression Cherry.” It goes without saying that Beach House’s avid fanbase is hungry for new music, and with the periodic release of “Once Twice Melody,” fans will be fed in four neat courses.

“Once Twice Melody”: A Four Chapter Release

“[The album] took on a very strange but exciting form, which was this kind of long-form expansive release,” said Scally in an interview with Apple 1 Music. “Then as we started to understand what it meant and what the songs meant, we realized that the chapters were forming on their own. And that was really, really exciting.”

Although Once Twice Melody is not a conceptual album, the songs follow a steady narrative that the duo has split into their four respective releases. “They 100% fit as one overarching, 1-18 story,” said Legrand, “And so that was part of the discovery of realizing that it could be broken into four chapters, but also work as one.”

The first of the four vignettes was released on Nov. 10, 2021, composed of tracks “Once Twice Melody,” “Superstar,” “Pink Funeral” and “Through Me.” “This chapter one is [one of] the most metaphysical chapters,” Scally said, leaving the rest of us on the edge of our seats for the three remaining releases. 

Caught on a Cliffhanger: Chapters to Come

Fans needed not wait in suspense for too long, as chapter two arrived on streaming platforms on Dec. 8, 2021, with tracks “Runaway,” “ESP,” “New Romance” and “Over and Over.” Chapters three and four arrive in 2022, with the third installment’s debut on Jan. 19 and the fourth and final album release on Feb. 18. In tandem with the Chapter release dates, Beach House has also announced a 2022 headlining tour across the United States and Europe. 

With the album release dates and 2022 tour lined up, what should we expect from “Once Twice Melody?” According to Scally, “There’s so many confines in music that really dominate everyone’s minds … like the four-minute songs, and the 10 song album … so it kind of sticks in your mind that a record should be uniform to some degree. And I think in the past we’d always really been controlled by that.”

Beach House plans on moving away from industry standards that define what a record should be, indicated by the album’s unique release sequence, stupendous 18 track length, and avoidance of the need to sound coherent. Thus far, Beach House has returned with tracks that itch the usual scratch of their discography, but fans should keep their eyes, ears, and minds peeled for upcoming tracks that subvert the status quo.

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