Beach House

Beach House formed in Baltimore in 2004, built around the partnership of Victoria Legrand and Alex Scally. Legrand's vocals — deep, assured, and wrapped in reverb — float above Scally's Fender Jazzmaster guitar lines and the duo's layered keyboard textures, creating a sound that is both intimate and vast. Their early albums favored lo-fi simplicity, but Teen Dream in 2010 expanded their palette into widescreen dream pop that drew critical comparisons to Cocteau Twins and Slowdive. Subsequent albums Depression Cherry, 7, and Once Twice Melody continued to refine their approach, with Scally's guitar serving as textural foundation rather than melodic lead — sustained chords and arpeggios drenched in reverb that create a harmonic bed for Legrand's voice. The Yamaha organ that anchors many of their songs provides a warm, analog warmth that distinguishes their sound from guitar-centric dream pop peers. Beach House's consistency — each album a subtle evolution rather than a reinvention — has built a catalog that functions almost as a single, decade-spanning work. Their live shows translate the studio's intimacy to larger venues through volume and visual immersion, with the band performing behind screens of projected imagery.