Thank Your Lucky Stars (Beach House album)

Thank Your Lucky Stars
Studio album by Beach House
Released October 16, 2015
Studio Studio in the Country
(Bogalusa, Louisiana)
Genre Dream pop
Length 40:51
Label Sub Pop (US), Bella Union (UK)
Producer Beach House, Chris Coady
Beach House chronology
Depression Cherry
(2015)		 Thank Your Lucky Stars
(2015)

Thank Your Lucky Stars is the sixth studio album by American dream pop band Beach House. It was co-produced by the band and Chris Coady, and was released on October 16, 2015, on Sub Pop and Bella Union. The album was released less than two months after their fifth studio album, Depression Cherry.

Described by the band as "not a companion to Depression Cherry, or a surprise, or b-sides," Thank Your Lucky Stars was unexpectedly announced nine days before its release via the band's Twitter account.[1] It received mostly positive reviews from critics.[2]

Background and recording

The album was recorded at Studio in the Country in Bogalusa, Louisiana, and mixed at Sonic Ranch in Tornillo, Texas.[3] Although the album was recorded simultaneously alongside Depression Cherry, the band felt that the records should be seen as distinct unconnected works.[4]

Reception

Professional ratings
Aggregate scores
SourceRating
Metacritic80/100[2]
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic[5]
The A.V. ClubB+[6]
Consequence of SoundB+[7]
Exclaim!6/10[8]
Pitchfork8.1/10[9]
PopMatters9/10[10]
Rolling Stone[11]
Spin8/10[12]

Thank Your Lucky Stars was released to highly positive reviews. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the album has an average score of 80, based on 13 reviews.[2]

Jayson Greene of Pitchfork suggested the songs took on a "darker edge" than those from Depression Cherry, judging the songs to feel smaller by having stripped away the typical cathedral-like reverb from the group's previous albums. Greene likened the mood of the songs to Beach House's material before they joined Sub Pop, describing the feeling as "pneumatic, dusty, like they are pulling a blanket around themselves in a heatless attic to ward off a threatening chill." Although the "joy and comfort have vanished" from the material, Greene claimed that that album is "still undeniably a Beach House album, a familiar mix of warm tones and chilly sentiments." Ultimately, Greene welcomed the addition to the band's repertoire, but suggested that a new album so soon created a dissonance that feels like "too much of a good thing."[9]

In a review from The A.V. Club, Corbin Reiff described the album as "most assuredly a continuation of many of the same motifs and hallmarks of the group's last release." Reiff hailed the band's craft, arguing that "Beach House has mastered the art of space by this point and seems to have an instinct for how long to drag out a keyboard melody or a guitar line before bringing in another element to keep things from bogging down." Although he felt Depression Cherry and Thank Your Lucky Stars were similar in motif, Reiff praised the band's decision to separate the songs, rather than tack them onto the former. For Reiff, Thank Your Lucky Stars supports itself as a singular entity where "the full sonic and emotional weight is tremendous."[6]

Writing for Rolling Stone, Meagan Fredette gave praise to Victoria Legrand's vocals stating that "her singing on Thank Your Lucky Stars feels more playful than usual, a welcome lightness that comes across from the first moments of "Majorette," the album's opener". Elegy to the Void was also singled out as a highlight of the record with Fredette describing the track as "the album’s crown jewel" and "as good a summation as any of what Beach House does best". Emphasising the maturity of the record in comparison to the band's debut, she suggests that "Like all their albums, this one is full of songs made for dreaming of a bygone love, or humming quietly to a new one".[13]

Accolades

Publication Accolade Year Rank
Pitchfork Readers' Top 50 Albums 2015
Readers' Most Underrated Albums 2015

Track listing

All songs written and composed by Victoria Legrand and Alex Scally. 

No. Title Length
1. "Majorette"   4:00
2. "She's So Lovely"   4:22
3. "All Your Yeahs"   3:48
4. "One Thing"   5:35
5. "Common Girl"   3:07
6. "The Traveller"   4:03
7. "Elegy to the Void"   6:29
8. "Rough Song"   5:14
9. "Somewhere Tonight"   4:13
Total length:
 40:51

Personnel

Beach House
Additional personnel

Charts

Chart (2015) Peak
position
Belgian Albums (Ultratop Flanders)[16] 43
Belgian Albums (Ultratop Wallonia)[17] 108
French Albums (SNEP)[18] 108
Portuguese Albums (AFP)[19] 29
Spanish Albums (PROMUSICAE)[20] 89
UK Albums (OCC)[21] 145
US Billboard 200[22] 39

References

  1. ↑ Rachel Brodsky, "Beach House Are Already Releasing Another Album, ‘Thank Your Lucky Stars’," Spin, October 7, 2015.
  2. 1 2 3 "Thank Your Lucky Stars – Beach House". Metacritic. CBS Interactive. Retrieved October 24, 2015.
  3. ↑ "Beach House – Thank Your Lucky Stars". Discogs. Retrieved November 25, 2015.
  4. ↑ "A Beach House Divided: Reconciling ‘Depression Cherry’ and ‘Thank Your Lucky Stars’". Flavorwire. Retrieved 2016-02-01.
  5. ↑ Phares, Heather (October 16, 2015). "Thank Your Lucky Stars - Beach House". AllMusic. All Media Network. Retrieved October 30, 2015.
  6. 1 2 Reiff, Corbin (October 16, 2015). "Beach House surprises with an unsurprisingly great new LP". The A.V. Club. The Onion, Inc. Retrieved October 16, 2015.
  7. ↑ Cosores, Philip (October 21, 2015). "Album Review: Beach House - Thank Your Lucky Stars". Consequence of Sound. Retrieved 2015-10-24.
  8. ↑ Bobkin, Matt (2015-10-16). "Beach House - Thank Your Lucky Stars". Exclaim.ca. Retrieved 2015-10-24.
  9. 1 2 Greene, Jayson (October 16, 2015). "Beach House: Thank Your Lucky Stars". Pitchfork Media. Retrieved October 16, 2015.
  10. ↑ Chris Gerard, "Beach House: Thank Your Lucky Stars," PopMatters, October 16, 2015.
  11. ↑ Fredette, Meagan. Beach House: Thank Your Lucky Stars. Rolling Stone. 23 October 2015. Retrieved 24 October 2015.
  12. ↑ Colin Joyce (October 20, 2015). "Review: Beach House Pull Their Weightless Compositions Back to Earth on ‘Thank Your Lucky Stars’". Spin. Retrieved October 24, 2015.
  13. ↑ "Beach House Thank Your Lucky Stars Album Review". Rolling Stone. Retrieved 2016-02-01.
  14. ↑ "Readers' Poll Results 2015". Pitchfork. January 5, 2016. Retrieved January 6, 2016.
  15. ↑ "Readers' Poll Results 2015". Pitchfork. January 5, 2016. Retrieved January 6, 2016.
  16. ↑ "Ultratop.be – Beach House – Thank Your Lucky Stars" (in Dutch). Hung Medien. Retrieved November 6, 2015.
  17. ↑ "Ultratop.be – Beach House – Thank Your Lucky Stars" (in French). Hung Medien. Retrieved October 23, 2015.
  18. ↑ "Lescharts.com – Beach House – Thank Your Lucky Stars". Hung Medien. Retrieved November 16, 2015.
  19. ↑ "Portuguesecharts.com – Beach House – Thank Your Lucky Stars". Hung Medien. Retrieved November 15, 2015.
  20. ↑ "Spanishcharts.com – Beach House – Thank Your Lucky Stars". Hung Medien. Retrieved November 15, 2015.
  21. ↑ Zywietz, Tobias. "CHART: CLUK Update 24.10.2015 (wk43)". Zobbel.de. Tobias Zywietz. Retrieved November 3, 2015.
  22. ↑ "Beach House – Chart history" Billboard 200 for Beach House. Retrieved October 27, 2015.
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