albums of the decade - 83. Beach House - Devotion

83. Beach House - Devotion (2008)

I've spent the last year, on and off, gorging myself on HBO's The Wire and its gritty, hard boiled depiction of Baltimore, Maryland. It's tough to grasp then, that the dream-pop outfit Beach House are from said city, especially when their music is so arresting. 'Devotion' has 11 tracks and they contain plenty of longing and heartbreak, as if the glimpse of light is somewhere on the horizon, but still a long way from this dark cave. The instruments and lyrics are sparse, for these haunted songs employ a 'less is more' policy, or for vocalist Victoria Legrand, perhaps 'loss is more'. When the curtain comes down on 'Home Again,' the pain is soothed and one of the most beautiful songs in an age packs the best discharge on an album ever. The Wire may be so preoccupied with the hustle of 'the game,' but for Beach House, they are so already ahead of that shit.