Beach House

East Coast dream pop from the same friendly folks who brought you low-tech maniac Dan Deacon and company, the sophomore album from Beach House is feathery ephemera that should get a few fans of Stereolab and similarly keyboard-obsessive bands in a pillow-fluffing mood.

The duo of guitarist Alex Scally and vocalist/organist Victoria Legrand evokes the billowy layers of sustained and tinkling notes and chords first popularized by the Beach Boys, now and forever a pop-music meme that often invites enjoyment without much examination. By which we mean, simply because something sounds this pretty and hypnotic doesn’t mean it’s great—it just makes it hipster muzak. No fault there, but when a 2:32 track called “Some Things Last a Long Time” lives up to its name with a somnambulant pace and narcoleptic vocals, it’s a drag in both figurative and literal senses of the word. Turns out it’s a cover of a Jad Fair/Daniel Johnston collaboration, but drained of their unique and endearing wackiness.

The tempos aren’t necessarily an issue: “Astronaut” is stately but seems to have a better grasp on its inner Esquivel, and “D.A.R.L.I.N.G.” adds trembling curlicues of 1965 guitar, echoing through the ether, like a blissful hallucination in a David Lynch movie. Yet, song for song, Devotion fails to engage as more than background noise, pleasant but forgettable.

Beach House plays Schubas Wednesday 26.