Album Review: Beach House’s ‘Bloom’

Baltimore duo Beach House releases its fourth LP, "Bloom." (Photo by Liz Flyntz)

Every record Beach House has made is slightly more immediate than the one before it, and “Bloom” (Sub Pop) is no exception.

The Baltimore duo’s fourth album solidifies some of the gauzier textures that drifted past on 2010′s “Teen Dream.” Victoria Legrand and Alex Scally steer more purposefully through these 11 new songs (including the hidden track), which come with more emphatic rhythms and a cleaner balance between her ethereal keyboards and his ringing guitar parts.

There are still plenty of atmospherics on “Bloom,” thanks in large part to Legrand’s languorous vocals. She intones the lyrics over a gently propulsive beat on “Wild,” and wraps her voice around a dreamy melody blanketed by layers of synthesizers and bass on the chorus to “Other People.” Lagrand and Scally dial in a noirish sound saturated with reverb on “Troublemaker,” and layer flickering swirls of electric guitar over a bobbing piano part that merits the title of “On the Sea.”

Strong though it is throughout, “Bloom” reaches its pinnacle on “Irene,” the last listed song. It opens simply, with pulses of guitar over the low hum of a synthesizer, then builds into a heart-fluttering upward spiral of piano and keyboards that’s as magical as spinning around beneath a pure blue sky on a summer’s day. “It’s a strange paradise,” Legrand sighs, and she’s exactly right.