The sleepy, gentle guitar line in Beach House’s breakout single “Zebra” sounds like a foal taking its first stand with unnatural, slow-mo grace. It’s at once fragile and pristine. When Victoria Legrand’s rich, androgynous vocals come in, they carry the same balance: her voice is deeply textured yet soft.

Each element of Beach House’s music tiptoes on this line. As “Zebra” gathers up its cantering shaker rhythms and faint organ pads, it constantly flirts with lifting off the ground. The magic in Beach House’s music lies in the liminal space between floating and forgetting you’re still on your feet.

Over the course of their discography, Beach House has moved from pretty bedroom pop (“Beach House” and “Devotion”) to sky-scraping dream-pop (“Teen Dream” and“Bloom”) to shoegaze (“Depression Cherry”)and back to pretty bedroom pop with touches of their earlier records thrown in (“Thank Your Lucky Stars”). The B-Sides and Remix collection released last year seemed to cap off the arch of the band. It seemed as if Beach House had explored the range of their sound and cleaned out their archives as a courtesy to their fans.

In such context, Beach House entered 2018 with something akin to a blank slate. It’s an odd situation for a band to be in six records deep into their career. While the announcement of their new record “7,” coming in May spurred excitement, it was difficult to tell exactly where Beach House’s sound would go. The record’s first single, “Lemon Glow,” echoed much of the band’s past work. Centered around a warped organ sample, a lilting vocal melody and persistent hi-hats, “Lemon Glow” coasts on a dreamy float over the course of its four minutes.

However, the track brings a snarling, aggressive quality around its edges that signals a small but notable shift in Beach House’s approach. Legrand’s vocals turn around minor chords into some dark, nearly creepy, harmonic areas. The lead guitar harkens back to the fuzz of “Depression Cherry,” but its distortion veers from textured to unhinged. The organ sample, while undoubtedly catchy and memorable, boasts a detuning effect that constantly fights against the hypnotic melodies of the track. “Lemon Glow” finds Beach House sticking to their strengths while pushing into darker, more dynamic territory.

“Dive” begins as a lovely ambient-pop ballad with no trace of percussion but then gears up into marching space-rock complete with thundering tom rhythms and diving lead guitar. “Dark Spring” launches with a tumbling drum fill and coasts into a driving atmospheric indie rock cut that alternately recalls Yo La Tengo and Deerhunter.

Across the tracks, one pattern is clear: Beach House’s music is more tangible than ever. Guitar and drums sit comfortably at the front of the mix alongside Legrand’s vocals, which shift between the spotlight and the background as each track demands. It’s quite likely that “7” will find Beach House with their feet planted firmly on the ground. Yet given the charged and dynamic nature of these early offerings, it’s likely they’ll manage to reach the same heights as before. While the direction may have changed, the destination – bliss – remains the same.