Premature Evaluation: Beirut - The Flying Club Cup
There's always something immensely familiar about Beirut's sound, even when you haven't heard the song before. That's a positive. In a short period of time, Zach Condon's proving himself a master of plaintive, rollicking nostalgia. Most of us met him in spring 2006 when he was enmeshed in that Gulag Orkestar's Balkan sound-world. From there we were instructed to pronounce 2007's Lon Gisland EP with a Long Island accent. Now, for his second full-length, The Flying Club Cup, Condon's followed his muse to France: The title was purportedly inspired by a photo from 1910 of hot air balloons taking flight a hair away from the Eiffel Tower and each song's meant to evoke a different French city. Vive La Différence!
Of course, Condon's also taking off, moving further away from the kid recording solo in New Mexico. As with Lon Gisland, he's working within a full-on eight-piece band. Initial tracks were recorded straight to a computer at A Hawk And A Hacksaw's practice space (remember, they leant brass-y accents to Gulag) with production assistance from Man Man/AHAAH's Griffin Rodriquez. Hawk's Heather Trost contributed violin and viola to three tunes, but this time it's all about that traveling band. Moving beyond the computer stuff, Condon and his posse struck a deal with Final Fantasy/Arcade Firer Owen Pallet to record at the Fire's Masonic Church studio if they played on a forthcoming Pallet E.P. Guess they shook on it ... Beirut got more tracks.
All that studio chatter's pretty Musician of us, but the background helps to explain the impressive expansion: tambourines rattle alongside more varieties of percussion than we can count, massively beautiful string sections swell ... Or how about the scissoring accordion, rat-a-tat drums, and cascading wine-sipping choir of "The Penalty"? The uke can still get mighty lonesome, as on "Forks And Knives (La Fete)," but our favorites carry the biggest list of ingredients: sample 'n' kitchen-sink toting "Nantes," "A Sunday Smile," with its elegantly stringed carnival pump and lilt, etc.
Sure, Beirut still makes us plenty nostalgic, but now that the Jacques Brel-lovin' 21-year-old's experimenting with different textures and introducing newer cadences and color tones, we've got ourselves a brand new world to investigate. And, to be honest, we've only just started...
The Flying Club Cup is out 10/9 on Ba Da Bing.
Posted at 5:42 PM in Premature Evaluation
Tags: Beirut
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This album is really incredible... it's not a progression so much as it is a glimpse of Beirut through a different lens.
Zach takes the French material and rather than aping it for a full album, he adds it to the sound he's already cemented in his first two offerings. The familiar horns and ukelele are still present, but now under the guise of French waltzes and the like.
I still think Elephant Gun is the best song he's made yet, just because it has that great hook that keeps you coming back. There aren't really many great moments like that, but as an album it is very complete and I could listen to it over and over again.
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off topic
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/29/arts/music/29cnd-kristal.html?ex=1346040000&en=ca941113175c6c2c&ei=5090&partner=rssuserland&emc=rss
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Looks like classical one. but i think that's very cool album
Michael
http://www.softexpose.com
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Yeah, this album is definitely one of my favorite of the year. I love La Banlieu and the Penalty. What great stuff. That Zach Condon. What a croon, he's got.
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I love this album already. Especially "A Sunday Smile" and "The Penalty"
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you all are too easily pleased. this write up reads like a press release. Nantes is the only good song.
Come on now. Let's be honest here all his shit sounds the same. He's catchy but is he really a "visionary"?
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I've only listen to (Harry Potter and) The Flying Club Cup twice through, but it's already something I know I'll be returning to plenty. Early favourite is 'A Sunday Smile'.
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'Gum, it's "Vive La Différence"...
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i listened a few times and i'm beginning to really love this record...the new songs make me smile...but i have to agree with sam about elephant gun...that song is just lovely!
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i've listened to it through a few times, and i think it's a great album as a whole, but it'll never match up to gulag orkestar for me. probably because i listened to that on repeat for 4 months while i gallavanted around italy and france, and let me tell you, the horn part in "the gulag orkestar" is the perfect soundtrack to late night walks on cobblestone streets in foreign countries.
also, "elephant gun" is one of my favorite songs of the last 5 years, easily. all this from a guy my own age. damn you, zach.
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you're right cyberghandi ... so much for high-school french. merci beaucoup!
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i dont know... this record just sounds so.. thin(?) compared to gulag... like they actually made a decision to use fewer instruments.
i dont know, i listened to it yesterday and absolutely nothing grabbed me.
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The record is basically Gulag Orkestar 2. With that much talent in his band (and with Final Fantasy guesting) and with the certifiable ton of instrumentation at his disposal, Zach could certainly do better to branch out even a little bit.
Strikes me as more of a band that produces 4 or 5 good songs per album. Their albums never cohesively depict, front to back, the culture and lifestyle that he so blatantly wants to be a part of. This is in part due to a lyrical deficiency.
Afer thinking these things, I guess I forget that he's just a 20 year old. I've got patience bc he's clearly capable of great things. I just hope that one of their next albums reach the level that I know is close.
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I found this record to be very mediocre in comparison to Gulag. Nothing particularly grabbed my attention on first listen. Maybe it'll grow on me.
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"his record just sounds so.. thin(?) compared to gulag... like they actually made a decision to use fewer instruments."
you need a better rip !
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Ok, so I've taken a listen to this thing through twice. While I love Gulag, this is a much better album as a whole. The first couple tracks on Gulag are ridiculously epic, and the rest of the album falls off from there. Here however, the entire thing is solid, from start to finish. It's brilliant, really. Well done.
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It reminds me a bit of Yann Tiersen (think "Amelie").
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yes, it really sounds like Tiersenn and it reminds me of something cosy, pleasant, blissful-yeah, I'm glad that I live in the world where Beirut plays!
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