Friday, September 2 2011
Beirut: The Rip Tide
By removing many of the worldly influences that made its early efforts so unique and refreshing, Beirut has fallen into a generic and uninspiring funk.
Tuesday, May 25 2010
La Blogotheque: Cinéma-vérité and Music
La Blogotheque use one take of the performance and present it as its played out, with a little bit of artistic editing included in the introductions of videos to introduce us to the subject matter, almost like a short documentary.
Thursday, February 12 2009
Beirut / Realpeople: March of the Zapotec / Holland
Billed as a double EP between Beirut and Zach Condon's solo moniker Realpeople, this album-length release should be taken very seriously.
Tuesday, April 15 2008
Beirut
There is a sense of fin de siècle in the music of Beirut, as though it is prophesying the death of an era in which American music for the most part shunned external influences.
Friday, March 21 2008
B As in Beirut by Iman Humaydan Younes
Through four women who painfully embrace the city that is at once their prison and their home, Younes raises the question: are we powerless to the pull of our past?
Wednesday, October 10 2007
Beirut: The Flying Club Cup
The lushly textured but repetitious second album from indie darling Beirut shows the hazard of playing with yourself.
Monday, October 16 2006
The Triumph of Musical Tourists
Under the name Beirut, Zach Condon released an album of Balkan-style songs he recorded in his bedroom and became an Internet-driven sensation. Though his music gestures nostalgically toward a gypsy old world, Condon’s casual appropriations suggest something much grimmer for the future.
Thursday, June 1 2006
Beirut: Gulag Orkestar
A multi-instrumentalist with indie royalty connection and early underground buzz equals instant canonicity, but it might be worthwhile to consider the music itself.
