Beach House, 'Over and Over'

Beach House has perfected the "escapist" song, which knocks you into dizziness and elation, heightened by those rotating, shimmering synths... it may also have the power to temporarily cure you of seasonal depression. "Over and Over," from the Baltimore's pair's new album, Once Twice Melody, is made for those few minutes between sunset and night — when purplish light extinguishes and noses turn red from the cold. The song's midpoint seems to signal the onset of pure darkness, as the synths swell, as if to fill the emptiness of a void.

The lyrics, which gently circle in on each other, are simple and hopeful against a heady backdrop: "A flicker in the sky / Reflects the dying light / Wherever you may go, a halo / And all that is lit (And all that is lit) / Surrounds you / As all the lights go down." The circularity of the song is key to its Whitman-esque optimism — that, despite the perpetual return of night, it will someday lift. "The night (The night) / That has (That has) no end (Over and over) / Will be (Will be) the last (The last), my friend."

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