During my summer in NYC interning at AAM promo a co-intern was raving about a band called Beirut. After argument with the other minds on the validity of this claim I kind of had a headache. I heard a little bit and was satisfied with it. The first thing that kept coming to mind when hearing it was Andrew Bird. While my opinion upon this has changed, I still would use that as a comparison to the work. I received the Lon Gisland EP and really never gave it enough time. The song Elephant Gun was very good, so I never put him off, I just never got around to bothering to engage it.
This seems to have been a mistake. After a music-colleague of mine ranked gave the album a prominent place in her Top 20 of 2007. (Something that I fucked up by failing to notice a 06 band in my list… one of the many signs I need to get my head back in the game.) So I got my hands on the latest album.
The first thing that really comes out with the album is the elaborate orchestration. It hasn’t been since Ys that I was so engrossed in non-typical folk orchestration. The heavy French undertones really never go out of style. Think about it… Stereolab has always been totally awesome, the Arcade Fire is one of the single greatest bands of our time to touch on a small portion.
It’s accessible at a level that is typically hard to convey. At first the listener might be a little taken aback by the vocals and lush orchestration but soon it becomes very inviting. Typically I throw on a cd for background music while eating dinner with my mother. She always enjoyed Ryan Adams for some reason, I guess the universal appeal of some of his work especially off Cold Roses appeals to her. When I put The Flying Club Cub on at one point she asked me if it was Mexican music. While I found it odd, I do always enjoy it when she engages my music. This is where I think the accessibility comes into play. It’s such an interesting album that you can’t help but become somewhat engaged in it regardless of how much you are actually listening to it.
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