photo by David Tombilla
I'm sure I wasn't the only one feeling a bit tense about where Victoria and Beach House were going to go with the new album. Teen Dream was the kind of album that felt like a full stop. It was precursored by other tentative efforts, but with Teen Dream they had finally 'arrived'. It stood head and shoulders above anything they'd done before. I wondered if they'd try to keep up with the ever changing landscape of pop, and feeling they were 'done with' the Teen Dream sound, venture into new lands.
Well it seems like with Bloom, they're happy to stay right where they are, and are showing that they can. Bloom feels like a direct continuation of their last album, but with very natural and slight evolution.
It's weird that they can produce the same dreamy mood again, shattering the illusion that it was a fleeting thing to be captured, and shows that it's a particular palette, technical skill, and flair, that produces their songs.
There's no real answer to Teen Dream's Take Care or Norway here, but a lot of the songs sound ever so slightly sharper and more poppy. Overall the album is really satisfying. It definitely works as a replacement to Teen Dream, which is just about starting to feel overplayed. Bloom arrived just on time. I think their next will have to be a bit different to keep my interest though. They've changed just about enough. Which is fine. They are a slow-moving creature.