REVIEW: Beirut - The Rip Tide

Beirut
The Rip Tide
(out of 5)

Zach Condon is one of those kids you should just really hate. It’s this kind of unbridled jealousy that has made him so successful and revered. Under the nom de plume of Beirut, Condon takes the simplest and most effective sounds from all over the globe and creates very other-worldly music with them.

At the tender age of 19 he had already embarked on a journey to educate the uninitiated masses on organic and lively ways of presenting Western pop music at a similar time to when the likes of Arcade Fire and The National were picking up pace with their take on natural musical environs.

After two critically and commercially successful records (and a number of EPs) under his and waifish youthful belt, Zach Condon has returned, complete with trademark soaring baritone. This time, though, he has trimmed all the superfluous flourishes and dense orchestrations and makes a point of returning to his staple diet of piano, horns, ukulele, the occasional organ, and rollicking drums to provide propulsion.

The songs here are sparser and more melodically restrained, striving for the greatest amount of beauty with the smallest amount of resources – and he succeeds with lead single ‘East Harlem’ and the soulful ache of ‘Port Of Call’.

An exercise in self-restraint, The Rip Tide is something Condon should be proud of adding to his canon. And we, as listeners, should love him all the more for it.

By James A. Robins