Once Twice Melody

***Once Twice Melody*** is the eighth studio album by Beach House. It was released on February 18, 2022 through Sub Pop. It is a double album of 18 songs, presented in four chapters; *Pink Funeral*, *New Romance*, *Masquerade*, and *Modern Love Stories*.

This is the first album (and double album) that was produced entirely by Beach House theirselves.

## Release

The first chapter (*Pink Funeral*) was released on November 10, 2021, the second (*New Romance*) on December 8, 2021, and the third (*Masquerade*) on January 19, 2022.

"Hurts to Love" was released as a standalone single on February 14, 2022, to coincide with Valentine's Day.

*Once Twice Melody* was released in full by Sub Pop on February 18, 2022.

## Reception

*Once Twice Melody* was released to universal acclaim from contemporary music critics. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the album received an average score of 84, based on 22 reviews, which indicates "universal acclaim". Aggregator AnyDecentMusic? gave it 7.8 out of 10, based on their assessment of the critical consensus.

Reviewing the album for AllMusic, Heather Phares claimed that, "Though *Once Twice Melody* is unapologetically lush even by Beach House's standards, the duo uses space creatively to express the beauty in sadness." Stevie Chick of *Mojo* called it the band's "grandest vision yet", praising the "impassive beauty" of Legrand's vocals and comparing them to "'O Superman'-era Laurie Anderson serenades, or as if someone programmed AI to sing like Judee Sill." Jason Anderson of *Uncut* commended the "stunning" cinematic quality of the first chapter and praised the album's "unexpected elements" for deftly counterbalancing the "grandeur and glamour from becoming sickly sweet." *Uncut* concluded that the album's "greatness lies not in its hugeness - it's in the duo's ability to create music that possesses the same intimacy regardless of its scope."

## Chapters

Only the first three chapters were released as EPs. The fourth chapter's release officially marked as the album's full release for digital download, for streaming platforms and LP.

### Chapter 1

***Once Twice Melody: Chapter 1 - Pink Funeral*** is an EP by Beach House and is the first of the four chapters of *Once Twice Melody*. It was released on November 10, 2021, through Sub Pop, for digital download.

"Once Twice Melody", it's title track, was released as a single on November 10, 2021.

The four songs on the chapter EP are the album's title track, "Once Twice Melody", "Superstar", "Pink Funeral", and "Through Me".

### Chapter 2

***Once Twice Melody: Chapter 2 - New Romance*** is an EP by Beach House and is the second of the four chapters of *Once Twice Melody*. It was released on December 8, 2021, through Sub Pop, for digital download.

The four songs on the chapter EP are "Runaway", "ESP", "New Romance", and "Over and Over".

### Chapter 3

***Once Twice Melody: Chapter 3 - Masquerade*** is an EP by Beach House and is the third of the four chapters of *Once Twice Melody*. It was released on January 19, 2022, through Sub Pop, for digital download.

The five songs on the chapter EP are "Sunset", "Only You Know", "Another Go Around", "Masquerade", and "Illusion of Forever".

### Chapter 4

***Once Twice Melody: Chapter 4 - Modern Love Stories*** marked the official release of *Once Twice Melody* for streaming, download, and LP. It is the fourth and the last of the four chapters of the album. It was released on January 19, 2022, through Sub Pop.

The five songs on the chapter are "Finale", "The Bells", "Hurts to Love", "Many Nights", and "Modern Love Stories".

## Track listing

All songs written and composed by Beach House.

## Personnel

* Beach House – arrangement, performance; production, engineering; art direction
	+ Victoria Legrand
	+ Alex Scally
	+ James Barone
* James Barone – live drums (writing, performance)
* Michael Scally – guitar solo (3)
* Wheatie Mattiasich – additional vocals (9)
* Rebecca Morrin – additional vocals (9)
* David Campbell – live strings arrangement
* Nick Tveitbakk – live drums engineering (1, 2, 4, 5, 8, 10, 12–14, 18)
* Trevor Spencer – live drums engineering (2–4, 6–9, 11), mixing (5, 11)
* Gabe Burch – live strings engineering
* Travis Warner – live strings engineering
* Johnny Morgan – assistant live drums engineering (2–4, 6–9, 11)
* Alan Moulder – mixing (1–4, 6–8, 10, 12, 16, 18)
* Caesar Edmunds – mixing (9, 13, 15, 17)
* Dave Fridmann – mixing (14)
* Mike Fridmann – assistant mixing (14)
* Greg Calbi – mastering
* Steve Fallone – mastering
* Jeff Kleinsmith – art direction, design
* Nicholas Law – inside heart art