Beirut - The Rip Tide (2011)

I'm going to preface this post with disclosing that I really and truly wrung my hands over my selection for this week.  I had 5 albums I was considering to post that I bounced back and forth about over and over these past few weeks.

A. Parquet Courts - Sunbathing Animal (2014) - Indie Rockers from NYC?  Feel like I've done that one before...

B. Fucked Up - Glass Boys (2014) - I could guarantee that it would be .5's and 1's across the board (though I think they positively kick ass).

C. Cymbals Eat Guitars - Lose (2014) - This was my second choice, but ultimately it lost out to this week's selection just because I love this week's selection so much

D. Andrew Bird - Things Are Really Great Here, Sort Of (2014) - I love Andrew Bird, and I think this would have been a crowd-pleaser.  But again, it barely lost out.

E. Sleater-Kinney - No Cities To Love (2015) - I'm still digesting this album, so I may post it later this year (unless someone else does).

So between these 5 albums I went back and forth, back and forth, until I woke up this morning with a song in my head and had an "AHA!" moment.  

F. None of the above!

This week's selection is The Rip Tide (2011) by Indie World Music-ers, Beirut.  If you're not familiar with Beirut then you are in for a treat, my friends.  I'm absolutely in love with this band and will sing their praises to anyone willing to listen.

Beirut is centered around and lead by native New Mexico singer, writer and multi instrumentalist, Zach Condon.  Their sound is decidedly "Old World"; incorporating brass, woodwinds, ukuleles and other traditional instruments of Mexico, married with Eastern European and pre-rock-and-roll genetic drift.  

There is something romantically cinematic about Beirut's music.  Putting on a Beirut record brings to mind faraway lands to which I have never been,  but are nevertheless familiar enough that I can imagine myself exploring their mysterious streets, darkening their seediest cafe doorsteps, and rubbing elbows with the locals I'll never meet.  It conjures a sense of adventure rather than a touristy holiday abroad.  There is danger and romance in their music and I cannot express how much joy/heartache a good Beirut song is capable of invoking in me.

I was first introduced to Beirut through the song "A Sunday Smile" off the excellent album "The Flying Club Cup (2007).  It's probably one of my favorite songs of all time.  It's just so painfully beautiful, and I could literally listen to it over and over for hours and not grow tired of it.

Even though this isn't a "recent" album (almost 4 years old now at the time of writing), The Rip Tide is nonetheless Beirut's third and most recent album, and so therefore I don't think I'm breaking the rules of musooklub too much by posting it.

Though Condon has musically busy and branched off and been working on numerous side projects in the years since it's release, there hasn't been a peep regarding any new Beirut album or projects in quite some time (though they have been appearing live sporadically at various venues across the globe, most recently in South America and Europe).  

Written in near total isolation in a cabin in upstate New York, The Rip Tide is beautiful and familiar without falling into repetition.  I hope you enjoy it as much as I do, and that you'll explore their back catalog as well as start looking forward to their next album (whenever the hell that may be).

Highlights on this album for me are the upbeat and sunny "Santa Fe", the catchy yet elegant "East Harlem", the majestic "Payne's Bay", and "Vagabond", a song that makes me want to jump on the first freight train travelling across the Carpathians towards Vienna that I see.

1. A Candle's Fire

2. Santa Fe

3. East Harlem

4. Goshen

5. Payne's Bay

6. The Rip Tide

7. Vagabond

8. The Peacock

9. Port of Call

(download).

4.5 out of 5.