The Rip Tide by Beirut
LABEL: Pompeii Records / Revolver USA

Labels can be hard to overcome. And Beirut, the Brooklyn-based outfit centered around wunderkind Zach Condon, has had to avoid a lot of pigeonholes since debuting its brand of indie, polka-pop. But on The Rip Tide, his third full-length, the man with an obvious fondness for ukulele, accordion, and Balkan brass arrangements shows a developing versatility and songwriting depth.

Condon’s instrumentation has always been impeccable and album opener “A Candle’s Fire” begins with the familiar strains of accordion and strums of ukulele, but billows out to include piano, brass, tambourine, and even new additions to the repertoire including steel drums. “Don’t forget a candle’s fire is just a flame” Condon muses, comparing life to a campfire, an image that he recalls as nostalgic and one that still “scares me just the same.” The following track “Santa Fe” is a hometown ballad for the singer, who declares “sign me up Santa Fe, and call me son.” The track, like several others on the album, selectively uses elements of electronica, skillfully mixing a bouncy electrified keyboard with Condon’s layered vocals. The song also belongs to a driving drumbeat which plays throughout the track and at the end is decked out by whirring keyboards.

The first single released from the album, “East Harlem,” is actually one of it’s more simple offerings. The song, which features more of Condon’s trembling vibrato than any other track, is the narrative of a star-crossed lover, “She’s waiting for night to fall/ Let it fall, I’ll never make it in time.”

  Beirut - East Harlem by Revolver USA

Some of the tracks, however, feature less melancholia and have a lighter touch. The opening of “Vagabond” almost recalls Feist, with its catchy keyboard arpeggiations. And album closer “Port of Call” begins with the twinkling of a glockenspiel and has a cheery oom-pah-pah brass rhythm.

Beirut’s first album since 2009’s celebrated March of the Zapotec, uses startlingly personal lyrics compared to the vague, distant, melancholia of earlier releases. The namesakes of the songs on The Rip Tide are more recognizable to listeners than “Nantes” or “Cherbourg,” and that familiarity gives these new songs a stronger sense of setting. On “Payne’s Bay,” Condon complains “this town’s alone and therefore I see no end in sight.” The song’s lighter, string-led beginning gives way to a brass-and-cymbal march during which Condon and backing vocalists chant “Headstrong/ today I’ve been headstrong,” an admonishment that perfectly fits a small town mindset, which does not like its citizens straying too far from the nest.

And this familiarity isn’t just evident in the songs with locations for titles. “Goshen,” a piano ballad, centers on the thoughts of an artist before a performance. Beginning with the line “You’re on in five/ it’s time you rise...” the song begins as a third person account, but worms it’s way into the performer’s (presumably Condon’s) inner thoughts which are preoccupied with some crisis in his love life. Although lyrics like “you’re not the girl I used to know” and “a fair price I’ve paid to be alone” err on the side of cliche, Condon seems to be at his most vulnerable and genuine on this track. It’s a welcome intimacy.

The album’s title track also feels very introspective as Condon confides “this is the house where I can be unknown, be alone.” The song delicately integrates electro-beeps and synth chords with Beirut’s ubiquitous brass. Condon appears to be in the same mindset for “The Peacock” where Condon bemoans being in “a city where no one hears” and layered vocals repeat the haunting mantra: “he’s the only one who knows the words.”

Revealing more and more of workings of Condon’s mind, The Rip Tide wears a lot more on its sleeve than any other Beirut album. And although it possesses all the trademarks of the “Beirut sound,” there is a newfound closeness between artist and listener. And that is a trademark that Condon should never avoid.


REVIEWED BY JENNIFER MILLS
JENNIFER’S FAVORITE TRACKS: “Santa Fe” • “Goshen” • “The Rip Tide”