I’m a bit embarrassed to admit this in the company of music writing colleagues, but I didn’t warm up to Beach House right away. Sure, it’s hard to hate on Victoria Legrand’s haunting vocals or the duo’s modest drum machine-driven rhythm section, but perhaps I was just an impatient listener, always waiting around for some imaginary payoff. It all clicked, however, at the 1:36 mark of their fabulous new track “Norway” from their new album Teen Dream.
“Don’t wait,” Legrand sings, before sounding out the “ay” six more times, à la Ronnie Spector’s opening hook in “Be My Baby” and “Baby, I Love You.” Perhaps it was that “classic girl-group pop” connection—that P4K’s Amy Phillips also noted—which finally calmed me down enough to enjoy Beach House’s dreamy grooves and take Legrand’s advice: “Don’t wait.”
Go hear it for yourselves: in a generous move, Sub Pop and Beach House are offering “Norway” as a free MP3 download here and a 41MB WAV here.