I’ve heard my fair share of unique music genres. You know those people who hear a word and automatically think of random songs? Well, that’s me. A while ago, I posted on my Instagram story that I wanted new album suggestions to listen to. I wanted to hear something I hadn’t before. There are many popular bands and genres that I tend not to listen to because they don’t really strike my fancy or I’m fairly oblivious to them.

One album that someone suggested was called Depression Cherry by Beach House. I’m going to be honest, I had never heard of this band before. That’s why I chose it.

Depression Cherry was released in 2015. Beach House is a band formed in Baltimore, Maryland in 2004. The duo includes main vocalist and keyboardist Victoria Legrand; alongside backup vocalist, guitarist, and keyboardist Alex Scally.

Through each song, I noticed a recurring theme. The background music was a distressed sort of laid-back-techno or electronic music. This aspect of the songs in Depression Cherry seemed to be heavily influenced by the introduction to techno and wave in 80s pop and rock.

The wave pattern repeated in the late 2000s to the early 2010s — and now. Both revival eras have had their own take on the electronic-curated sound. The 2000s and 2010s era created much more intense electronic sound behind its singers. Now, the revival has taken a more distressed approach. Think 1950s recording quality, except now they’ve added static.

The music as a whole had wandering notes, wispy vocals, acoustics in electronic sound, and repeated melodies. When taking a glance at the lyrics, the words looked to be written as poems about people, the world, and the human mind. It also seemed as if Beach House was going for a calmer-dream sounding approach—almost as if they had a neo-Pink Floyd sound. I’ll admit, though Pink Floyd is a more popular band, they are not at the top of my list.

I favor music that has a less jumbled and stirred-together sound and more of a distinctive form. In rock it’s really nice to hear electric guitar and the different layers of instruments distinctly. In Depression Cherry, the instrument sounds that are usually appreciated in rock were very faded and unnoticeable.

There were some nice “musical climaxes”, as I like to call them: where the stories in the notes and composition have a build up to something impactful to the ear. I did appreciate this.

My favorite song in the album had to be “Space Song”. The song had a beautiful climax and gave me 80s video game vibes throughout. The song also sounds like a put together story.

With all of these points in consideration, I would give Depression Cherry by Beach House an 8.5/10.