Beirut
The Rip Tide
Pompeii
2011
Rating: 8.5 squawky black birds eating my bird feeder clean out of 10
Beirut is one of those bands I've always enjoyed, but never gotten overly excited about. I'm not ashamed to admit that they sounded just enough like Neutral Milk Hotel to get me interested, but not enough to keep me on the edge of my seat. This may be changing with "The Rip Tide", as Zach Condon seems to be finally putting it all together - taking all those disparate world music elements he is so in love with, and combining it with real pop sensibility for one of the best records of the year as far as I'm concerned. He's writing fairly typical pop songs, but instead of guitar driving the sound it's an accordion or some horns or an organ or, often, all three. But they're still pop songs. Really catchy pop songs. In fact, the second track "Santa Fe" might be the second best track of the year (after Mount Moriah's "Lament").
I'm still in the early stages of my love with this album, so time will tell how this ages on me. But I absolutely cannot get enough of this right now.
No comments:
Post a Comment