Remind Me Tomorrow is a marvellous album, not better than Are We There but different, most notably in the greater use of electronic trimmings. The songwriting and singing are as strong as ever, so the effect is that Remind Me Tomorrow feels like it satisfyingly builds on what's come before, retaining the strengths while doing something a bit new.
I've mentioned Sharon Van Etten and the Cure in the same breath before, specifically re: "Taking Chances" from Are We There, and the comparison has floated to mind again while listening to this album's "Jupiter 4", on which the prevailing atmosphere isn't a million miles from that early trio of Seventeen Seconds, Faith and (the more downbeat end of) Pornography. It's a brilliant song, and one of several that also swims in the starry seas adjacent to Beach House.
I've also been thinking about Tori Amos, a real old touchstone for me. The musical similarities are sometimes there - especially vis a vis from the choirgirl hotel and to venus and back - although not enormous, but the general tenor of intensely emotional and charged confession (maybe together with an oceanic quality) is what really ties together how I respond to both artists' music. Personal history counterfactuals are always kind of meaningless and this one's no exception, but still: I can imagine, if I'd encountered SVE in my teens, her impact on me might have been utterly enormous.
Here are a few bits of the album I particularly cherish:
I've mentioned Sharon Van Etten and the Cure in the same breath before, specifically re: "Taking Chances" from Are We There, and the comparison has floated to mind again while listening to this album's "Jupiter 4", on which the prevailing atmosphere isn't a million miles from that early trio of Seventeen Seconds, Faith and (the more downbeat end of) Pornography. It's a brilliant song, and one of several that also swims in the starry seas adjacent to Beach House.
I've also been thinking about Tori Amos, a real old touchstone for me. The musical similarities are sometimes there - especially vis a vis from the choirgirl hotel and to venus and back - although not enormous, but the general tenor of intensely emotional and charged confession (maybe together with an oceanic quality) is what really ties together how I respond to both artists' music. Personal history counterfactuals are always kind of meaningless and this one's no exception, but still: I can imagine, if I'd encountered SVE in my teens, her impact on me might have been utterly enormous.
Here are a few bits of the album I particularly cherish:
- First track "I Told You Everything" opens, I'm pretty sure, with the exact same piano chord that kicks off "Afraid of Nothing", itself the first track of previous album Are We There. And then it turns into an equally immersive and beautiful mope.
- There's plenty of stomp and slink scattered throughout, including some ace fuzzy bass. "No One's Easy To Love" (another Beach House-y one), "Comeback Kid" (brattier, good), "You Shadow" (with actual funk/soul, which she's shown she can do before and is welcome here as always).
- I already mentioned "Jupiter 4".
- Also, "Seventeen", even before she starts screaming towards the end.
- The way it all flows of a piece, winding up with "Stay" on a note that leaps forward without overstaying. No wonder I've so often been finding myself cuing it up to play again as soon as I've finished listening.
