Once Twice Melody
Once Twice Melody is the eighth studio album by the American dream pop duo Beach House, released on February 18, 2022. It is a double album of 18 songs, presented in four chapters. Release. The first chapter was released on November 10, 2021, the second on December 8, 2021, and the third 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. "Superstar" was released to adult alternative radio as  the album's third single on April 4, 2022. Critical 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 21 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."