gulag orkestar (beirut)
This is a pleasant album. It's not quite as perfect as Lon Gisland, but still has a lot of loveliness and charm to it. This album has a sense of oldness to it- the song titles alone are like a tour through old Europe. But the oldness is even more evident in the music itself, an undercurrent of wistfulness and weariness. Many of the songs have a somewhat slow, plodding nature, and it takes a while to acclimate to that baroque charm. Some are darkly formal, others are sweetly lolling. Beirut is really at its best when it takes this sweetly weary, wistful tone and matches it to a beautiful hook. "Postcards from Italy" is my favorite- the absolute peak of album comes in the sweet, hopeful, swooning serenade of those trumpets. "Mount Wroclai" follows nicely, a subdued jam. And the closer, "After the Curtain," is really lovely, I like it a whole lot. Marvelously contemplative touch of synth, lovely melody. And "The Bunker" seems like a really nice statement of the album- a nice mix of old world carnival drama and sweet, chanted melody.
No comments:
Post a Comment