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Thank Your Lucky Stars (Beach House album)

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Thank Your Lucky Stars
Studio album by
Beach House
ReleasedOctober 16, 2015 (2015-10-16)
StudioStudio in the Country
(Bogalusa, Louisiana)
GenreDream pop
Length40:51
LabelSub Pop
Producer
Beach House chronology
Depression Cherry
(2015) 		Thank Your Lucky Stars
(2015) 		B-Sides and Rarities
(2017)

Thank Your Lucky Stars is the sixth studio album by American dream pop duo Beach House. It was co-produced by the band and Chris Coady, and was released on October 16, 2015, by Sub Pop. 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] Despite this, the words "Thank Your Lucky Stars" were etched in the runout of the vinyl pressings of Depression Cherry.[5] The cover art is a photograph of Victoria Legrand's mother taken in the late 1950s.[6]

Reception

Professional ratings
Aggregate scores
SourceRating
Metacritic80/100[2]
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic[7]
The A.V. ClubB+[8]
Consequence of SoundB+[9]
Mojo[10]
The Observer[11]
Pitchfork8.1/10[12]
PopMatters9/10[13]
Rolling Stone[14]
Spin8/10[15]
Uncut8/10[16]

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 18 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."[12]

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."[8]

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."[14]

Accolades

Publication Accolade Year Rank
Pitchfork Readers' Top 50 Albums 2015
25[17]
Readers' Most Underrated Albums 2015
4[18]

Track listing

All lyrics written by Victoria Legrand; all music composed and arranged by Beach House.

No.TitleLength
1."Majorette"4:00
2."She's So Lovely"4:22
3."All Your Yeahs"3:48
4."One Thing"5:36
5."Common Girl"3:06
6."The Traveller"4:04
7."Elegy to the Void"6:30
8."Rough Song"5:14
9."Somewhere Tonight"4:14
Total length:40:54

Personnel

Beach House

  • Alex Scally – keyboards (tracks 1, 3, 4, 7–9), guitar and bass (all tracks)
  • Victoria Legrand – keyboards (tracks 2, 5, 6, 8), bass guitar (tracks 1, 3), guitar (tracks 4, 7)

Additional musicians

  • Graham Hill – live drums and percussion (except tracks 7 and 8)
  • Chris Bear – percussion (tracks 7 and 8)

Production

  • Beach House – production, mixing
  • Chris Coady – production
  • David Tolomei – engineering
  • Jay Wesley – assistant engineering
  • Shane Wesley – "all around dude"
  • Manuel Calderon – mixing, engineering
  • Heba Kadry – mastering

Artwork

  • Victoria Legrand – photography, lettering
  • Alexandra B. McLean – cover photo
  • Post Typography – design

Charts

Chart (2015) Peak
position
Belgian Albums (Ultratop Flanders)[19] 43
Belgian Albums (Ultratop Wallonia)[20] 108
French Albums (SNEP)[21] 108
Portuguese Albums (AFP)[22] 29
Spanish Albums (PROMUSICAE)[23] 89
UK Albums (OCC)[24] 145
US Billboard 200[25] 39

Release history

Country Date Label
United States October 16, 2015 Sub Pop
United Kingdom Bella Union
Australia Mistletone

References

  1. ^ Rachel Brodsky, "Beach House Are Already Releasing Another Album, ‘Thank Your Lucky Stars’," Spin, October 7, 2015.
  2. ^ a b c "Thank Your Lucky Stars by Beach House". Metacritic. Retrieved October 24, 2015.
  3. ^ "Beach House – Thank Your Lucky Stars". Discogs. Retrieved November 25, 2015.
  4. ^ Leung, Andrew (October 19, 2015). "A Beach House Divided: Reconciling 'Depression Cherry' and 'Thank Your Lucky Stars'". flavorwire. Flavorpill Media. Retrieved May 3, 2016.
  5. ^ "Beach House - Depression Cherry (Vinyl, LP, Album)". Discogs.com. Retrieved July 7, 2016.
  6. ^ "2015 Reddit Beach House AMA".
  7. ^ Phares, Heather. "Thank Your Lucky Stars – Beach House". AllMusic. Retrieved October 30, 2015.
  8. ^ a b Reiff, Corbin (October 16, 2015). "Beach House surprises with an unsurprisingly great new LP". The A.V. Club. Retrieved October 16, 2015.
  9. ^ Cosores, Philip (October 21, 2015). "Beach House – Thank Your Lucky Stars". Consequence of Sound. Retrieved October 24, 2015.
  10. ^ "Beach House: Thank Your Lucky Stars". Mojo (266): 88. January 2016.
  11. ^ Carnwath, Ally (October 25, 2015). "Beach House: Thank Your Lucky Stars review – woozy pop with elegant hooks". The Observer. Retrieved May 15, 2018.
  12. ^ a b Greene, Jayson (October 16, 2015). "Beach House: Thank Your Lucky Stars". Pitchfork. Retrieved October 16, 2015.
  13. ^ Gerard, Chris (October 16, 2015). "Beach House: Thank Your Lucky Stars". PopMatters. Retrieved October 16, 2015.
  14. ^ a b Fredette, Meagan (October 23, 2015). "Beach House: Thank Your Lucky Stars". Rolling Stone. Retrieved October 24, 2015.
  15. ^ Joyce, Colin (October 20, 2015). "Review: Beach House Pull Their Weightless Compositions Back to Earth on 'Thank Your Lucky Stars'". Spin. Retrieved October 24, 2015.
  16. ^ "Beach House: Thank Your Lucky Stars". Uncut (224): 72. January 2016.
  17. ^ "Readers' Poll Results 2015". Pitchfork. January 5, 2016. Retrieved January 6, 2016.
  18. ^ "Readers' Poll Results 2015". Pitchfork. January 5, 2016. Retrieved January 6, 2016.
  19. ^ "Ultratop.be – Beach House – Thank Your Lucky Stars" (in Dutch). Hung Medien. Retrieved November 6, 2015.
  20. ^ "Ultratop.be – Beach House – Thank Your Lucky Stars" (in French). Hung Medien. Retrieved October 23, 2015.
  21. ^ "Lescharts.com – Beach House – Thank Your Lucky Stars". Hung Medien. Retrieved November 16, 2015.
  22. ^ "Portuguesecharts.com – Beach House – Thank Your Lucky Stars". Hung Medien. Retrieved November 15, 2015.
  23. ^ "Spanishcharts.com – Beach House – Thank Your Lucky Stars". Hung Medien. Retrieved November 15, 2015.
  24. ^ Zywietz, Tobias. "CHART: CLUK Update 24.10.2015 (wk43)". Zobbel.de. Tobias Zywietz. Retrieved November 3, 2015. {{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |work= (help)
  25. ^ "Beach House Chart History (Billboard 200)". Billboard. Retrieved October 27, 2015.
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