Beach House’s Victoria Legrand’s favourite songs: “A crazy effect”
Anyone who’s ever spent a long journey, starring out of the window wistfully while Beach House’s ‘Space Song’ soundtracked the moment knows Victoria Legrand’s beautiful voice well. If you haven’t experienced it, this is your chance to rectify that.
Beach House seem to make music for exactly that moment, playing in the space between the intimate and the cinematic to create songs that turn your life into a movie. After booming to success off the back of their 2006 self-titled album, they have maintained a cultishly dedicated fan base ever since. Their music manages to translate vivid emotions without relying too heavily on lyricism. Instead, their merger of indie pop and the hazier sounds of shoegaze seem to have found a golden recipe for tracks that feel at once both euphoric and tender.
The interaction between those two points plays out in Legrand’s own listening habits, showing clearly where she got it from. In conversation with Rookie magazine, she revealed an eclectic taste, but one that feels like an understandable building block to Beach House’s sound.
In a list of her favourite songs of all time, there are some other shoegaze and dream pop pioneers on there. Cocteau Twins’ ‘Lorelei’ makes the list as well, alongside the French dream pop duo Air and their track ‘Sexy Boy’.
Mazzy Star’s ‘Rhymes Of An Hour’ makes an appearance with Legrand saying, “I discovered this song through the soundtrack of the film, which is how I would find many songs that came to define my teenage years.” As so many Beach House songs feel soundtrack-ready, this connection makes so much sense.
Another soundtrack addition that makes her list is ‘Natural One’ by Folk Implosion. The piece was featured in the 1995 film Kids, with Legrand saying, “This song had a crazy effect on me.”
It seems that Legrand always looks for music to feel like a movie moment or transform life’s little moments into something cinematic. While bringing up Bob Dylan’s ‘Corrina Corrina’, she discusses how music and memory can do that, stating, “I remember the exact moment when I first heard it. Like a scene from a movie.”
She also gives space to the other true titans of music, looking out into the worlds of rock and folk. Neil Young’s ‘Expecting To Fly’ makes the cut as she says, “I’m pretty sure this song made me view music in a completely different way than I had been at the time,” sharing how Young’s melodies impacted her. The Beach Boys ‘You Still Believe In Me’ is there too, alongside Lou Reed’s ‘Vicious’, which served as a gateway. “I related to Lou Reed and soon, through Transformer, went and discovered all of Velvet Underground, which is just… my favourite rock band,” she says.
The Cure’s ‘Plainsong’ makes the list. Honestly, that track feels like it could be a Beach House song as it bursts into glorious, cinematic life. Of the song, Legrand says, “This song will always be a devastating one and ever-inspiring.”
Still on the hunt for new music and discovering new favourite songs with each new week, month and year, some of Legrand’s choices are fresh ones. ‘(Feels Like) Heaven’ by Fiction Factory is a newer addition as she says, “It just struck me, and that’s how it goes. I’m either in it, or I’m not. I’ve always had that gut, emotional, and physical reaction to music.” She seems to have had that reaction to Pink Industry, too, as she chooses ‘Don’t Let Go’, saying, “I listen to this song every day now.”
With choices spanning across dream pop, 1980s rock, 1960s pop and modern new finds, Legrand’s vast and varied tastes are tied together with one throughpath: cinematic value. Always on the hunt for songs that transform common moments into something magical, that’s the motivation behind her own band too.
Victoria Legrand’s favourite songs:
- ‘Plainsong’ – The Cure
- ‘Expecting to Fly’ – Neil Young
- ‘Sexy Boy’ – Air
- ‘If You Need Me’ – Susan Cadogan
- ‘You Still Believe In Me’ – The Beach Boys
- ‘Séquelles’ – MC Solaar
- ‘I Am Missing You’ – Ravi Shankar
- ‘Rhymes Of An Hour’ – Mazzy Star
- ‘Natural One’ – Folk Implosion
- ‘Lose My Breath’ – My Bloody Valentine
- ‘Vicious’ – Lou Reed
- ‘Corinna, Corinna’ – Bob Dylan
- ‘Lorelei’ – Cocteau Twins
- ‘(Feels Like) Heaven’ – Fiction Factory
- ‘Don’t Let Go’ – Pink Industry
