Sound on Sound Review: Beach House

At 9:45pm, exactly a half hour after Beach House’s slated start time on the Dragon’s Lair main stage Saturday night, the quiet drum intro and shimmering guitar line of “Wild” finally began.

It took until the last of the opener petering out before any light graced the stage, but then, suddenly: Vocalist and keyboardist Victoria Legrand, multi-instrumentalist Alex Scally, and two touring members illuminated by a backdrop of glimmering lights. Of course it was mocked up to look like stars that read “Welcome to Beach House.”

Across the Baltimore duo’s six albums there’s been no straying from the perfected aesthetic of intergalactic organ-synth lullabies. From 2006’s self-titled to 2015’s Thank Your Lucky Stars, the sound has thickened, grown more polished. Yet Beach House remains rooted in the ethereal, the sort of music that doesn’t sit with you but invites you to float instead.

In a seamless 70-minute set, each song bled into another. The less-refined melancholy of “Master of None” from the debut slid easily between Bloom’s spookier “New Year” and stirring “Wishes.” Banter stayed light, aside from a reminder to vote and the occasional thanks.

The final succession, Depression Cherry’s organ-driven and abstract “Sparks” into Bloom’s heartbroken “Myth” and Teen Dream’s hopeful, lovesick “10 Mile Stereo,” played flawlessly. Mellow in live performance, Legrand’s husky, velvety voice breathes new life into the songs’ dreaminess. Beach House emphasizes craft, the hugeness and singularity of its astral sound consuming the listener instead of the other way around.

As closer “10 Mile Stereo” trailed off into an ambient explosion, crushing sound and flashing strobe lights continuing after the song had broken apart, it felt like a rude expulsion after an immersive hour in the hypnotic cocoon called Beach House.