CD choice:Pop
BEIRUT The Flying Club Cup 4AD ****
Traveling really does broaden the mind. The Beirut collective have tumbled and stumbled around Europe in recent times plugging their glorious Gulag Orkestra debut. On occasion they may have been a mite sozzled, but the sense of drama and possibility that colour Zach Condon's musical imagination has gained much from the touring.
Gulag Orkestra, remember, was the work of a college dropout from deepest New Mexico who had an inkling to front a Balkan orchestra and, in the process, generated a work of genuinely moving and evocative panache. The nature of second albums means that we know Condon's predilection for klezmer playing only too well, so The Flying Club Cup is as much about stylistic experimentation as it is about dismissing any suspicions that his debut was a fluke. Condon is a smart boyo, and it was an astute decision to partner with one-man band Final Fantasy's Owen Pallett (who helped Arcade Fire scale loftier peaks).
The notion of two young guns working their way through the canon of baroque pop, Gallic- infused melodrama and the more surefooted sides of classic cabaret was always going to be a juicy proposition. But don't take this to mean that the mournful, solemn, wonderfully over-wrought brass that tugged at your heartstrings on Condon's debut has been dispatched back to some mountain village. This time, though, it's just one component in a mesmeric swirl of sounds, as Condon leaves the Balkans for the bright lights of Paris.
There's a sense of the innocent abroad on Nantes and the beautiful A Sunday Smile, but it is how Condon and accomplices turn songs such as In the Mausoleum or Forks & Knives (La Fête) into audacious, swooning, romantic fare that will have you swooning.
By the way, Zach Condon is just 21. He's only just begun. www.beirutband.com JIM CARROLL
Download tracks: Nantes, In the Mausoleum
