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Mar 07, 2018 Beach House By Christopher Roberts Photography by Shawn Brackbill

Late last night Baltimore duo Beach House (Victoria Legrand and Alex Scally) shared a new song, “Dive,” which followed another new song, “Lemon Glow,” which was shared a few weeks ago with the promise of a new album later this spring. Now Beach House has officially announced that new album. It’s entitled 7 and is due out May 11 via Sub Pop. The band has also shared a psychedelic black & white visual for “Dive” directed by San Charoenchai. In addition, Beach House have announced some tour dates. Below are the album’s tracklist and cover art, as well as their tour dates, followed by the “Dive” visual.

Beach House posted the following lengthy statement about 7:

“7 is our 7th full-length record. At its release, we will have been a band for over 13 years. We have now written and released a total of 77 songs together.

Last year, we released an album of B-sides and rarities. It felt like a good step for us. It helped us clean the creative closet, put the past to bed, and start anew.

Throughout the process of recording 7, our goal was rebirth and rejuvenation. We wanted to rethink old methods and shed some self-imposed limitations. In the past, we often limited our writing to parts that we could perform live. On 7, we decided to follow whatever came naturally. As a result, there are some songs with no guitar, and some without keyboard. There are songs with layers and production that we could never recreate live, and that is exciting to us. Basically, we let our creative moods, instead of instrumentation, dictate the album’s feel.

In the past, the economics of recording have dictated that we write for a year, go to the studio, and record the entire record as quickly as possible. We have always hated this because by the time the recording happens, a certain excitement about older songs has often been lost. This time, we built a ‘home’ studio, and began all of the songs there. Whenever we had a group of 3-4 songs that we were excited about, we would go to a “proper” recording studio and finish recording them there. This way, the amount of time between the original idea and the finished song was pretty short. (8 songs were finished at Carriage House in Stamford, CT. and 2 were done at Palmetto Studio in LA.)

7 didn’t have a producer in the traditional sense. We much preferred this, as it felt like the ideas drove the creativity, not any one person’s process. James Barone, who became our live drummer in 2016, played on the entire record. His tastes and the trust we have in him really helped us keep rhythm at the center of a lot of these songs. We also worked with Sonic Boom (Peter Kember). Peter became a great force on this record, in the shedding of conventions and in helping to keep the songs alive, fresh and protected from the destructive forces of recording studio over-production/over-perfection.

The societal insanity of 2016-17 was also deeply influential, as it must be for most artists these days. Looking back, there is quite a bit of chaos happening in these songs, and a pervasive dark field that we had little control over. The discussions surrounding women’s issues were a constant source of inspiration and questioning. The energy, lyrics and moods of much of this record grew from ruminations on the roles, pressures and conditions that our society places on women, past and present. The twisted double edge of glamour, with its perils and perfect moments, was an endless source (see “L’Inconnue,” “Drunk in LA,” “Woo,” “Girl of the Year,” “Last Ride”).

In a more general sense, we are interested by the human mind’s (and nature’s) tendency to create forces equal and opposite to those present. Thematically, this record often deals with the beauty that arises in dealing with darkness; the empathy and love that grows from collective trauma; the place one reaches when they accept rather than deny (see “Dark Spring,” “Pay No Mind,” “Lemon Glow,” “Dive,” “Black Car,” “Lose Your Smile”).

The title, 7, itself is simply a number that represents our seventh record. We hoped its simplicity would encourage people to look inside. No title using words that we could find felt like an appropriate summation of the album.

The number 7 does represent some interesting connections in numerology. 1 and 7 have always shared a common look, so 7 feels like the perfect step in the sequence to act as a restart or “semi-first.” Most early religions also had a fascination with 7 as being the highest level of spirituality, as in “Seventh Heaven.” At our best creative moments, we felt we were channeling some kind of heavy truth, and we sincerely hope the listeners will feel that.

Much Love,
Beach House”

Beach House put out two albums in 2015: Depression Cherry and Thank Your Lucky Stars, both via Sub Pop. In 2017 they released a B-sides and rarities compilation, fittingly titled B-Sides and Rarities, also via Sub Pop.

Read our 2017 interview with Beach House on B-Sides and Rarities.

Also read our 2015 interview with Beach House’s Victoria Legrand about Depression Cherry.

7 Tracklist:

01 Dark Spring
02 Pay No Mind
03 Lemon Glow
04 L’Inconnue
05 Drunk in LA
06 Dive
07 Black Car
08 Lose Your Smile
09 Woo
10 Girl of the Year
11 Last Ride​

Beach House Tour Dates:

04-30 Chattanooga, TN - The Signal
05-01 New Orleans, LA - Civic Theatre
05-02 Little Rock, AR - Metroplex Live
05-04 Oxford, MS - The Lyric
05-05 Tulsa, OK - Cain’s Ballroom
05-07 Albuquerque, NM - Sunshine Theater
05-08 El Paso, TX - Tricky Falls
05-11 Mexico City, Mexico - Auditorio Blackberry
05-13 Mayer, AZ - Form Arcosanti
06-02 Barcelona, Spain - Primavera Sound
07-26 Philadelphia, PA - Tower Theater
07-27 Raleigh, NC - The Ritz
07-28 Atlanta, GA - Buckhead Theatre
07-30 Dallas, TX - Bomb Factory
07-31 Austin, TX - ACL Live at the Moody Theater
08-02 Tucson, AZ - Rialto Theatre
08-03 Los Angeles, CA - Hollywood Forever Cemetery
08-05 San Diego, CA - The Observatory at North Park
08-07 Oakland, CA - The Fox Theater
08-10 Portland, OR - Keller Auditorium
08-12 Vancouver, British Columbia - Orpheum Theatre
08-14 Salt Lake City, UT - The Depot
08-15 Denver, CO - Ogden Theatre
08-17 St. Paul, MN - The Palace Theatre
08-18 Chicago, Il - Chicago Theatre
08-19 Detroit, MI - Royal Oak Music Theatre
08-20 Toronto, Ontario - Sony Centre
08-22 New York, NY - United Palace Theatre
08-23 Brooklyn, NY - Kings Theatre
08-24 Boston, MA - House of Blues
08-25 Washington, DC - The Anthem
09-25 Lisbon, Portugal - Coliseu dos Recreios
09-26 Porto, Portugal - Teatro sa da Bandeira
09-30 Lyon, France - Epicerie Moderne
10-01 Cologne, Germany - Gloria
10-02 Berlin, Germany - Huxleys
10-04 Lund, Sweden - Mejeriet
10-05 Gothenburg, Sweden - Tradgarn
10-07 Oslo, Norway - Rockefeller
10-08 Stockholm, Sweden - Munchenbryggeriet
10-09 Copenhagen, Denmark - Forum Black Box
10-11 Hamburg, Germany - Kampnagel
10-12 Utrecht, Netherlands - TivoliVredenburg
10-13 Brussels, Belgium - AB
10-15 Paris, France - Olympia
10-18 London, England - Troxy
10-19 Manchester, England - Albert Hall
10-20 Dublin, Ireland - Vicar Street

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