Depression Cherry

Background and recording

After Beach House completed touring for their previous record Bloom (2012), the group took a six-month break. Uncertain about their future, singer/keyboardist Victoria Legrand said, "I didn't feel creative at all... I just thought well, maybe I'll never have another musical idea." She added, "I just personally felt I needed a couple of months of just not doing anything, I didn't have thoughts." Legrand found herself frustrated and limited creatively by the presence of a live drum set on tour to play Bloom's songs because of "the noise it creates and how much space it fills". Guitarist Alex Scally concurred, saying, "There was a transparent feeling, [the songs] didn't feel as nuanced."

Though some of Depression Cherry's musical ideas originated from 2012, Beach House wrote the majority of the record between autumn 2013 and 2014; "10:37" was one of the first songs to be written during this period. The album was recorded at Studio in the Country in Bogalusa, Louisiana over two months, from November 2014 to January 2015. It was co-produced by Chris Coady, who worked on the band's previous two records, Teen Dream (2010) and Bloom. Prior to joining the band in the studio, they sent him phone recordings of some of their in-progress songs. For the song "Days of Candy", they hired eight singers from Pearl River Community College to create a 24-part choir. After completing that song and "Levitation", the band knew they had the album's closing and opening tracks, respectively, and considered the record completed. The album was mixed at Sunset Sound in Hollywood, California, except "Beyond Love", which was mixed at Sonic Ranch in Tornillo, Texas.

Promotion and release

On May 26, 2015, Beach House announced Depression Cherry along with tour dates supporting the album. According to the band, the album is a return to the simpler style of dream pop from their first two albums. In a press release on the Sub Pop website, the group said:

"In general, this record shows a return to simplicity, with songs structured around a melody and a few instruments, with live drums playing a far lesser role. With the growing success of Teen Dream and Bloom, the larger stages and bigger rooms naturally drove us towards a louder, more aggressive place; a place farther from our natural tendencies. Here, we continue to let ourselves evolve while fully ignoring the commercial context in which we exist."

Vinyl and compact disc copies of the album feature a cover lined with red velvet. A limited edition "Loser Edition" of the album was released on clear vinyl record.

On July 1, 2015, Beach House released the album's lead single, "Sparks". On August 19, nine days before the release of Depression Cherry, NPR Music made a stream of the album available online.

Reception

Depression Cherry received mostly positive reviews from contemporary music critics. At Metacritic, which assigns a weighted mean rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the album received an average score of 76, based on 34 reviews, which indicates "generally favorable reviews".

Track listing

All tracks written by Victoria Legrand and Alex Scally.

Personnel

Credits adapted from the liner notes of Depression Cherry.