Beach House - 'Devotion' (Bella Union) Released 25/02/08

This time around, Beach House rub up the genie. Where their eponymous debut slumbered with its soporific washes and lacked a certain catch or bite, the nostalgic wonder of 'Devotion' cosy's up with nocturnal melodies, retro-drenched lullabies, and dreamy torch-songs about love and devotion that canoodle with the blankets pulled tight. Pedal steel combines with swirling organ and reverb as the Baltimore duo Alex Scally and the sultry, come hither vocals of Victoria Legrand create a smoky, wistful-tinged ambiance. 'Devotion' swelters in slo-rhythms with an opiated haze redolent of Mazzy Starr, This Mortal Coil and Tarnation, evoking ghostly dance halls, ramshackle piers and deserted beach-fronts.

Romance is in the air on 'Wedding Bell' and 'Turtle Air', the former wonderfully halting with a swing-the-umbrella cadence, fuzz guitar and vocals - "...oh but your wish is my command...", and the latter saturated with a mystical wonder as Victoria's vocals gently rise and fall to slo-beats. 'Gila' forms a delicious, atmospheric, opiated rhythm as Victoria sings - "...sure you got a handle on the past/ it's why you keep your little lovers in your life...", whilst 'Heart Of Chambers' has an epical retro-grandeur that lights a candle to the romantic thrall - "...I'd like to be someone/ you could finally learn to love agehehen... ", whist 'D.A.R.L.I.N.G.' brings along a bunch of flowers.

This Mortal Coil and Dead Can Dance are brought to mind on the organ loops and wistfulness of 'You Came To Me', while the Patrick Watson-like 'Holy Dances' has a stop-and-listen with fairground carousel tones and shuffling time changes to raise the album tempo from sliding into a prone posture. 'All The Year' is saved from nodding off early by Victoria's cherished vocals whilst the funereal organ stirs up a smoky fug. "Your picture/ is still / on my wall..." sings Vic with a sexy, weary tone on the vignette 'Some Things Last', poking over the embers of a relationship gone sour, while on the airy Motown retro-hybrid of 'Astronaut' a cosy domesticity bids welcome - "Come /over to our house/ I'll pour some tea for us/ one sugar or two...".

Beach House have fleshed out their sound and pumped up their organs, and 'Devotion' embraces unexpected couplings as Motown and alt-country flavours emerge amidst autumnal states of mind. Lazy and wistful in tone, at times with little let up from rolling in the grass, 'Devotion' is an altogether nostalgic traipse down lovers lane to a time when couples courted, and we were devoted, darhling.