Beirut, The Rip Tide

By Chelsea Spear

Zach Condon, the jet-setting mayor of indie pop band Beirut, knows how to set a mood. Before listeners hear so much as a note of his latest album, The Rip Tide, the song titles suggest a travelogue instead of a mere collection of tunes. They are named for locations both exotic and quotidian; the ones that aren’t suggest a skyline broader than that of his Santa Fe home. Which journeys does Condon invite his listeners on with this album?

The Rip Tide presents a more cohesive vision for Condon and Beirut. While his previous albums featured individual songs that bore the influence of regional music—most notably Balkan folk and mariachi brass—he does better at integrating his far-flung inspirations into his own creations. Condon’s great skill at writing for brass instruments comes through in spades, as many of the songs feature ornate brass parts buttressing his trademark lush melodies.

Beirut’s surprise popularity in Brazil has inspired Condon to incorporate new percussion sounds into his work. Several songs include xylophone, surdo drums, and repiniques. Where many of Beirut’s indie-pop peers might write a samba or a bossa nova to show off their newfound skill with these instruments, Condon instead uses them to great and original effect. On other tunes, he employs a Casio keyboard drumbeat, which is well balanced in the mix and sounds less tacky than it might on a lesser band’s album.

Lyrically, Condon explores the theme of fame and how being a public figure has affected him. In a 2007 interview with the SF Weekly, he spoke of this very issue: “People tell me that they read somewhere I was at a show last night. Or, I’ll try to tell them a story and they’ll be like, ‘Yeah, I read that.’ . . . [Y]ou can’t process it all, so that you just live with it. You kind of just become two different people. In public, I’m a very different person, and I’ve learned to be one, on stage, after the show.”

On the title track, he sings the haunting refrain, “This is the house where I feel alone” with the voice of a man who finds strength in solitude. Likewise, he closes the album with “Port of Call,” a yearning tune which features the couplet “Be fair to me, I may drift a while/Were it up to me, you’d know why.” In light of his dilemma, the song could almost be about the divide between his public and private personae.

Where Beirut’s previous album, The Flying Club Cup, had some abrupt transitions, Condon wisely chose a suite of songs that work well both as individuals and as a whole. The gorgeous, detailed production and unusual, globetrotting arrangements and instrumentation make The Rip Tide an album to miss at your peril.

The Rip Tide was released by Pompeii Records on August 30. It is available in digital and physical formats. To order a copy, please visit the Beirut website.

Tour Dates:

Fri. Sep. 2: Dorset, UK @ End of Road Festival
Sun. Sep. 4: Stradbally, Ireland @ Electric Picnic
Tue. Sep. 6: Manchester, UK @ Manchester Academy
Thu. Sep. 8: Amsterdam, Netherlands @ Paradiso
Sat. Sep. 10: Berlin Festival @Flughafen Tempelhof & Club xberg
Mon. Sep. 12: Paris, France @ Olympia
Wed. Sep. 14: Brussels, Belgium @ AB
Fri. Sep. 16: London, UK @ Brixton Academy
Wed. Sep. 21: New York, NY @ Terminal 5
Thu. Sep. 22: New York, NY @ Terminal 5
Mon. Sep. 26: Chicago, IL @ Congress Theater
Wed. Sep. 28: Denver, CO @ Fillmore Auditorium
Sat. Oct. 1 Oakland, CA @ Fox Theater
Tue. Oct. 4: Los Angeles, CA @ Greek Theatre
Thu. Oct. 6: Santa Fe, NM @ Warehouse 21
Fri. Oct. 7: Santa Fe, NM @ Santa Fe Community Convention Center
Sun. Oct. 9: St. Louis, MO @ The Pageant
Tue. Oct. 11: Royal Oak, MI @ Royal Oak Music Hall
Tue. Oct. 25: Richmond, VA @ The National
Thu. Oct. 27: Atlanta, GA @ Variety Playhouse
Sat. Oct. 29: Austin, TX @ Stubbs Waller Creek
Wed. Nov. 9: Lexington, KY @ The Kentucky Theater
Fri. Nov. 11: Cincinnati, OH @ Bogarts
Sun. Nov. 13: Philadelphia, PA @ Electric Factory
Thu. Dec. 29: Melbourne, Australia @ Falls Festival Lorne
Sat. Dec. 31: Hobart, Australia @ Falls Festival Marion Bay
Sun. Jan. 1, 2012: Gong Guan, Taiwan @ The WALL Live House
Wed. Jan. 18, 2012: Tokyo, Japan @ CLUB QUATTRO
Fri. Jan. 20, 2012: Osaka, Japan @ SHANGRI-LA