For the remainder of 2009 we will be featuring albums that meant a lot to us this decade. I have really enjoyed spending quality time with my record collection and not just what is new and current. One thing this collection will not be is all-encompassing. We will be deliberately leaving out some of the universal favorites (Kid A, Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, Funeral, etc) because you’ll see them everywhere, and the last thing we want to do is state the obvious.

Instead, this collection will very much an outlet for us to share/discuss our favorites over the past 10 years with a focus on albums that we feel have been overlooked in the lists we’ve seen roll out this far.

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Beirut | The Flying Club Cup (2007)

When “Postcards From Italy” hit the internet, Beirut and his album Gulag Orkestar became one of the most talked about emerging artists. It was hard to believe the young Zach Condon could be the source of such an incredible outpouring of musical mastery, but, as it turned out, Condon was only just beginning his craft.

When reading about Beirut it’s impossible to get through without descriptors like ‘gypsy,” “Mariachi” and “Balkan” used to describe the sound that is realized from the Santa Fe, New Mexico native. The Flying Club Cup was one of our favorite albums in 2007, and drew heavily from Condon’s French interest. The album features string arrangements by Owen Pallett, and was revolutionary in using Take Away Shows for each song on the album, thus catapulting the video creative buzz across online music outlets.

This was an album of great heights. It’s an album capable to transporting you to a different time or place. If you’ve had the good fortune of seeing these songs unfold in a live setting it’s about as close to perfection as one could ever ask. Again, like most of the albums that comprise our favorites from this decade, this is an album that is perfect from start to finish.

Best Live Show I Saw: Portage Theater, Chicago (2007)
Best Tracks: “Nantes” “A Sunday Smile” “Guyamas Sonora” “Cliquot” and “Forks and Knives (La Fête)”
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Buy: Beirut – The Flying Club Cup
MP3: Beirut – “A Sunday Smile”

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By Pete Donahue

For a person who has recently really gotten into Beirut, the release of the March of the Zapotec and Holland EP’s couldn’t have come at a better time. Unfortunately, Zach Condon lost me at the March.

A collection of six songs recorded in Mexico with the Jimenez Band, the first EP manages to capture the spirit of Mexican music via the horns, but leaves me looking for a lot more. Opener “El Zocalo” is a 29-second snippet that sounds like it was taken during a huge celebration (such as a wedding), with its loud, layered horn section and crashing cymbals. Musically, there is much going on, but it’s also misleading in terms of the shape of things to come with the rest of the album, which doesn’t come across has celebratory-sounding.

“La Llorona” sounds like a Balkan lament march, backed by an “oompah-oompah” tuba and marching band snare. Condon’s signature croon sounds great as he wails “And all it takes to fall/If you don’t walk, might as well crawl.”

Then comes “My Wife,” an instrumental that sounds like an eastern European orchestra jamming with a Mexican horn section. Unfortunately, the song doesn’t really go anywhere, yet gives the impression it was supposed to be sung over. Perhaps for reasons unknown, vocals were never recorded, so the song was released as is (see: The Smiths’ “Oscillate Wildly”).

“The Akara” is a bit more funky and relies less on the tuba and more on the horns, ukulele, and percussion. Though it takes almost two minutes before Condon’s voice enters, it’s a nice wait, as he sings “I’ve been saved before/I’m saved once more,” sounding like the Beirut I have grown to really appreciate.

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