Beirut

Beirut
Gulag Orkestar
(2006)

Rating: 7.2

I was very excited the first few times I listened to this album because it had all the raw materials for a fiesty indie longplayer - there was the dinky techno balladry of the Magnetic Fields, the brash Black Rider divilment of Tom Waits and it was all held together by the inventive pop hands of Andrew Bird. In fact, I'm still not sure that the lead singer is not some sort of Andrew Bird doppelganger. It was not difficult to shut the eyes and imagine I was listening to all my favourite head-the-balls banging out a giant, gypsy, million dollar bash in the style of The Travelling Wilburys. Maybe Roy Orbison might even steal in with a chillingly sad: Where Is My Old Europe Gone? between choruses.

The trouble is that with repeated listening, all of my giddy illusions were cruelly dispelled. Roy never appeared. The Magnetic Fields downed casio-tools and Tom left a few half assed sea shantys in the hands of uncertain studio hands. It all fell apart. The only person left was an Andrew Bird impersonator and the studio hands just resorted to pushing all the dials up to 10 whenever they were unsure of what to do.

I'm being too harsh here. I was just listening to this album on the way home and it made me feel ill. Every song swells to an almighty chorus and there seems to be very little restraint exercised in recording the songs. I got so tired of Zach Condon wailing mournfully in both my ears that I pulled out my earphones and stumbled along muttering Just Shut Up, Shut Up Will You Just Shut Up....

But its a good album. There is a wonderful variety of instruments and even if there are plenty of precedents for whats been done, Zach Condon demonstrates a keen enough talent to warrant a few hurrahs and yahoos. Unfortunately there are about 57 Shut Ups as well.