Beirut – The Rip Tide
Beirut – The Rip Tide
9/10
I have been like a kid with a new toy since this latest longplaying effort from Beirut crash landed my hallway. After all, we have been waiting since 2007 for a follow up to The Flying Cup Club. This is a much more introspective offering, yet it sits easy on your ears whilst wafting into your subconscious. Tracks like ‘Santa Fe’ are sinister, subliminal slices of pop. In many ways, despite it’s rich layered sound, this record feels stripped & full of raw emotion. ‘Goshen’ – best described as a torch song – is probably the best example.
Most years an album will come along to soundscape a season, and The Rip Tide will be that album for late summer. At times it’s almost Funeralesque, effortlessly slipping from the title track into ‘Vagabond’, whilst at others complexly disjointed. Every play has unlocked more of its beauty. I’ve not read any other reviews, but if this does not make a whole heap of critics end of year lists, I will be most surprised.
The album is on Pompeii Records (via Forte Distribution in the UK), a label started and wholly owned by Condon. Pompeii is a fully independent, artist-run label, and it is releasing The Rip Tide internationally. This extreme level of creative control is what the band has always preferred. Shows often sell-out because they choose to play smaller, more intimate venues. This connection directly to fans extends to The Rip Tide release itself, the desire to be able to 100% decide what their music will sound, look, and feel like, not to mention how it can be obtained.
Griffin Rodriguez’s production is, once again, immaculate. The performances of the band – Perrin Cloutier on accordion, Paul Collins on bass, Ben Lanz on trombone, Nick Petree on drums, andKelly Pratt on horns – are spot-on. With contributions by such esteemed colleagues as violinist Heather Trost (A Hawk and a Hacksaw) and Sharon Van Etten. This drops in the UK on August 29th.
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European Tour Dates are as follows:
02-Sep Dorset, UK – End of the Road
04-Sep Stradballyr, Ireland – Electric Picnic
06-Sep Manchester, UK – Academy
08-Sep Amsterdam, The Netherlands - Paradiso
12-Sep Paris, France - Olympia
14-Sep Brussels, Belgium – AB
16-Sep London, UK – Brixton Academy
You can stream the album from the following link:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/musicblog/2011/aug/08/beirut-rip-tide
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