On a recent, warmer-than-usual Friday, Victoria Legrand and Alex Scally stand by a dock in Harbor East, while a photographer tries to frame the easily distracted duo. Legrand, constantly moving her long hair to the side, squints in the sun, and a hooded Scally calls to mallards wading by. It's lunchtime, and a trio of men dressed in business-casual notice the shoot as they walk along Lancaster Street.

"That's that band," a man says. "What's their name?" The others don't know.

I nod and say "Beach House."

"Ah, that's right!" he says.

We've just wrapped up a talk over Jasmine green tea (Legrand) and coffee (Scally) in a Harbor East cafe near their practice space. It's clear they take pride in keeping the hype in check. But as they release their third album, Teen Dream, on Tuesday and embark on a world tour, it will be harder to maintain that anonymity. That guy, and others, won't have trouble remembering the name Beach House.

In 2005, the operatically trained Legrand, fresh from studying theater in Paris, came to Baltimore and met Scally through a friend. The two clicked and began writing music. Legrand played organs and sang, Scally played guitar and a chintzy drum machine kept the beat.

They've been close since. As the lanky duo gets prepped for a shot by a bare tree, Legrand giggles as she brushes off Scally's jacket. Responding to questions, they emphasize the other's answers. But their record label release plainly states they "are not a couple."

Beach House, released in October 2006, was recorded over two days, and sounds like it. The February 2008 follow-up, Devotion, built on the formula of ethereal landscapes and Legrand's haunting croon. Both records helped the band carve a "dream pop" niche, recalling Mazzy Star's shoegazer longing and Nico's hypnotic delivery, wrapped in layers of sound.

Teen Dream is different in its robust sound and expectations (Rolling Stone awarded it 3œ stars). This album is their most immediate -- hooks are stickier, melodies are catchy and an energy fills space that before would have been unexplored.

"I think we've gotten better at knowing where something can go and how to get it there," Legrand, 28, says of the writing stride she and Scally, 27, have hit.

Scally apologizes to Legrand for being "chatty today," then interjects, "There was a definite urge to feel explosive in the new songs because we felt … held back for so long by music that was really ethereal and a distant fog."

The two headed to New York's Dreamland studio to write and record their debut on Sub Pop (The Shins, Fleet Foxes). The month of isolation in the former church was intense yet cathartic.

"We went to this really beautiful place and never went outside," Scally says. "We were like, 'That's so much time.' But as soon as we got up there, it wasn't enough time. It was like we were racing almost every day against this clock of when we were done."

Legrand smirks and chimes in, "This 4:20 clock."

Deciphering Legrand's lyrics can feel like a brain teaser after a bong rip. From the recent iTunes single of the week, " Norway": "Seven figures leap the hungry mouths / The beast, he comes to you / He's a hunter for a lonely heart in the season of the sun / Don't you know it's true? Norway." She hopes the meaning can be unique to each listener.

"Lyrics are very important," she says, shifting from slumped to attentive. "It's not something that I just write loosely and think, 'Oh, no one's going to read them anyway.' … I don't think they're punctuation. They're definitely a part of the music."

Beach House jumped from Carpark Records (home to Baltimore's Dan Deacon) to the larger Sub Pop last year to "allow us to fulfill more of our visions," Scally says.

Teen Dream has a companion DVD, featuring a video to each song. Films come up in conversation -- Legrand jokes that the "you" in her lyrics addresses Eywa, the "Avatar" goddess (and so a laughing Scally passes her an imaginary joint), and Scally admires Neil Young's soundtrack to the 1995 psychedelic Western "Dead Man."

Another development: Sub Pop just sent the duo to Sundance to perform -- a trip they feel could lead to other opportunities.

But they're focused on Teen Dream. The influential indie-rock blog Gorilla vs. Bear calls the record "near-perfect." NPR deems it the band's "most immediate and rewarding record yet." Legrand and Scally refuse to get swept up in the hype.

"We've just been touring tons and it just spreads," Scally says. "I don't think [hype] is like a giant cannonball from space. … I think it's easy to go on the Internet and think something really crazy is going on. It's just people on the Internet."

Their pursuits remain artistic-driven. In the insular world of Beach House, complacency is the only enemy.

"[Artists] have to go somewhere new constantly," Scally says. "We have to develop. We have to get better."

Legrand finishes the thought: "It's not that things aren't ever good enough, but if you feel like things are good enough then I think you're really mistaken."

Wesley Case is a presentation architect for b. Follow him on Twitter @wesleycase.