By Pete Donahue

If you’ve heard Baltimore’s Beach House before, a few elements probably stand out. Perhaps vocalist Victoria Legrand’s husky, haunting voice, or her melodic keyboards grabs your attention most? Maybe it’s guitarist Alex Skully’s spidery guitar lines, capable of taking the lead in a song or assuming a more rhythmic role, that you think is the most prominent piece of the band’s sound? Or maybe it’s both musicians’ instruments covered in considerable amounts of reverb that you effortlessly single out of their songs. While all these things are vital to Beach House’s sound, their third and latest LP, Teen Dream, proves the band can keep these very elements that made them recipients of considerable blogosphere acclaim based on their two previous albums and expand. The band’s growth is blessed step of just the right proportion – Teen Dream is neither too drastic nor too subtle in terms of their sound’s evolution.

Beach House use nearly every song on their new album to demonstrate their evolved lineup, which features live drums and percussion, bass guitar and more backing vocal arrangements. “Walk in the Park,” for example, manages to blend the familiar electronic drum beat, but lets the rhythm explode in the choruses where live drums kick in, giving Skully’s shimmering guitar and Legrand’s melodic keyboard room to take off. With her raspy croon similar to the likes of Nico, Grace Slick and Hope Sandoval, Legrand lets her melancholy reveal itself for the sake of an ethereal aesthetic: “The face that you saw in the door isn’t looking at you anymore/The name that you call in its place isn’t waiting for your embrace/The world that you love to behold cannot hold you anymore” she laments.

Legrand’s hopeless romantic persona actually forces its way into Teen Dream quite often, but coming from such a convincing voice, it is criminal to ignore. The first time I heard “Silver Soul,” I stopped what I was doing because I was certain I had heard the first great song of 2010. Not since I first heard Will Oldham groan “I feel deserving of love/Can it be something I dispose of/Or put away in the box under the bed/Will it rot there and spoil my days” on “There is Something I Have to Say” from last year’s Beware have I felt so moved by a lyric. Containing a dreary organ, wobbly guitar line and thick drum beat, Legrand doesn’t hold back, singing things like “We gather medicine for heartache so we can act a fool/It’s incomplete without you, the silver soul is running through/It’s a vision, complete illusion” before she staggers her way to the chorus. Later joined by a bigger live cymbal presence than Beach House listeners are accustomed to, Legrand cries “It is happening again” over and over. The lyric punches listeners right in the stomach; the song sounds like what a euphoric haze courtesy of a hard narcotic would sound like – gleaming and beautiful, but rooted in an awful sorrow.

“Norway” contains a powerful dynamic between quiet verses, sprouting pre-choruses and a spiraling chorus, while granting entrance to a more mythical subject. In a halcyon manner, Legrand offers intriguing passages like “Seven figures leap the hungry mouths, the beast, he comes to you/He’s a hunter for a lonely heart in the season of the sun,” amid a woozy slide guitar howl before stretching “Norway” out into nine syllables, further joined by a steady array of auxiliary percussion. For those who fancy a more upbeat Beach House, heed to the ample danceability of “Lover of Mine.” With a poppy organ line and bona fide shoegaze groove, wait for the chorus and its shuffling disco beat as Legrand orders “Off to nowhere!” “Lover of Mine” also sees Skully’s guitar make a more subtle attack to let the keyboard and organ guide the song, helping Teen Dream achieve a nice balance of guitar and keyboards. For a band who relied on mostly guitar and keyboards for so long, such is a noble demonstration of a good sound evolving into great one.

With a new home at indie juggernaut Sub Pop Records, I’m sure plenty are waiting to see how successful the move turns out, especially considering Beach House are now label mates with the likes of Iron & Wine, Band of Horses and Fleet Foxes. Quite the roster to live up to, but Teen Dream proves Beach House belong with such names. The band made the kind of album that should promote them from everybody’s favorite opening band to legitimate group capable of standing on their own. Sure, Legrand’s vocal work with Grizzly Bear and her band’s countless, coveted support slots have helped Beach House over the last few years, but they back it up with these 10 new songs. With its late January release, I’m not sure if Teen Dream will be 2010’s Merriweather Post Pavilion, but I wouldn’t be shocked if Beach House make a few “Top 10 of 2010″ lists, either. A considerably mellow LP, Teen Dream is definitely a headphones record rewarding listeners with a more revealing and engaging approach than they have ever done before. This year should be kind to Beach House and rightfully so – they have earned it.

Buy: Beach House – Teen Dream
MP3: Beach House – “Norway”