Beirut – Gulag Orkestar

This entry was posted by jon on Wednesday, December 20th, 2006 at 12:36 pm.

2006, Ba Da Bing

The comparison has been made before—but it makes sense, so sue me: Beirut frontman Zach Condon sounds a helluva lot like Neutral Milk Hotel’s Jeff Mangum.

Condon’s voice is deeper, but the ghost of NMH is all over this baby. And that, friends, is that. When you sound a lot like an undeniable classic, comparisons will be made—regardless of intentions—and Gulag Orkestar suffers as a result.

This album is interestingly exotic (in other ways reminiscent of later David Byrne), and its Gypsy theme shows that Condon is well-versed in his source material. The uniformity of the sound, however, is detrimental, and though Condon is unafraid to take risks in some ways (Bossa Nova lightens the funereal tone later in the album, and the wild synth in the closing track “After the Curtain” is perfect), he seems unsure about actually cutting loose.

Beirut live would probably be something to see, but the band doesn’t translate well here. Gulag Orkestar is far from a bad album, but it has problems. There are some deft touches of great songwriting, though, which leaves hope for a more varied, less studied, wilder follow-up.

B-