Our father said to me
They aren’t in trouble
Our father walked out when
He sees he’s seeing double
I got a chance to catch Beach House last month when their tour hit Los Angeles, and was blown away by their new song, which has been called “Wild,” “Frightened Eyes,” and something in a wingdings font that I doubt I could type out on a Mac in a format that anybody could read. It’s hard to make out much of the lyrics (is she saying, “heart is to chance”?), but it was THE new song, and was by far the highlight of their show.
Right? When my friend, who picked an inopportune time to visit the ladies room, returned in the middle of the song, all I could say was, “this song is fucking amazing.” The sound is such a step forward from their past work, it really seems a paradigm shift for their music as a whole. Like (forgive me for the expounded comparisons) Radiohead’s Kid A, or The National’s Cherry Tree, I take this one song as a hint of where they are going, and that we never could have guessed they were capable of. If only the L.A. crowd could have awoken from their pretentious slumber and danced a bit to it. File under: heart stopping.
I don’t know man, it sounds like something that they made during or after Teen Dreams. I think it would of fit nicely on that album actually. I’ll have to hear it a bit more but on first listen it didn’t sound much different than that material.
There is nothing on Teen Dream that is nearly as uptempo as this, and Beach House have always been characterized by delicate songs that are held together by finer touches of harmony: a sliding guitar note on “Master of None,” or repeating organ notes on “D.A.R.L.I.N.G.,” for example. Not here: there are driving drums and a thumping bass beat over an organ melody that doesn’t wander much. In a way, it is more poppy and less the baroque-inspired layering of elements of their previous work. And yet, all the elements that define them are still there: Victoria’s deep voice, synthesized drums, and lyrics that aren’t that far off from “Take Care.” If you were going to score a movie with Beach House, you’d put them to a pensive scene where a character skips town by bus, looking out the window or where two young lovers finally embrace. This one would go in the trailer or with a sped up night of partying.
Based on the lack of a formal song name, I doubt that it was written along with Teen Dream. But, I suppose, time will tell.
New lyrics seem to be written this way:
“My mother said to me
That I would get in trouble
Our father won’t come home
because he is seeing double”
thanks. yes, i really struggled with understanding from the live performance. still sounds great. really excited for the album. remarking, “this song is fucking amazing” usually fills that break about midway through the song, every time i listen to it.