September 13th, 2007
New Beirut album
Very excited. Noise of letterbox. Clatter of stuff on the hall floor. What do I find? The new Beirut album. As if all of these weren’t enough, the follow up my favourite album of 2006 is here. Have just finished a first listen and it sounds brilliant. The Flying Club Cup is somewhat different from The Gulag Orkestar in that there’s still some, but not as much of that distinctive Klezmer sound going on, but the instrumentation is amazing. It’s a huge, stunningly arranged record while also managing some gorgeous quiet pockets.
Great cover too.
Download/listen to a track ‘A Sunday Smile’ over on the Beirut site.
September 13th, 2007 at 11:03 am
“In The Mausoleum” is the best track on the album.
I listened to that song on repeat when I first got the record.
September 13th, 2007 at 12:22 pm
fantastic album!
Did you see the La Blogoteque videos?
September 13th, 2007 at 1:07 pm
oh and this is very interesting too…
http://idolator.com/tunes/you-are-being-watched/watermarked-cds-cause-paranoia-to-be-added-to-long-list-of-music-critics-problems-298040.php
September 13th, 2007 at 2:48 pm
Gulag Orkestar is one of the best albums ever! can’t wait for this new dealy.
September 13th, 2007 at 4:53 pm
Pedro, tracks 8, 9 and 10 are my faves so far.
Niall, there’s a rake of live vids of a couple of tracks from the album that are all over the place at the moment. Same ones?
I read a very interesting article about the new Animal Collective album. A journo in the States leaked it 3 months prior to release and was found out thanks to the watermark.
As you’ve noticed - mostly because of what I do and out of respect for record and PR folk I know - I don’t upload music here and I certainly don’t share any advance promo stuff on the internet.
Did you download the Beirut album?
Raptureponies, we’re all at one in our Zen like appreciation of Zach Condon. More listens of TFCC this afternoon in the car and it’s getting even better.
September 13th, 2007 at 5:00 pm
Apparently Zack Condon wanted to use another photo for the cover (check out the story in a recent edition of Foggy Notions), but couldn’t get clearance. The photo being one of the very earliest in existence, of hot air balloons floating over the Paris skyline. My copy’s in the post…. can’t wait.
September 13th, 2007 at 8:41 pm
They’re the ones.
Yes, I downloaded it. Won’t be uploading it as its pre-release. I’ve learnt my lesson there thanks to Web Sheriff from previous efforts which is fair enough. It depends on the artist sometimes. I’ve featured some pre-release tracks in Podcasts alright. Somehow that feels less naughty.
September 16th, 2007 at 1:29 pm
I really do think this is *even* more lovely than Gulag, which is saying something!
September 17th, 2007 at 10:36 am
I spent Friday night listening to Flying Club Cup and Gulag Orkestar, and i still think GO is far superior. There’s something lacking or missing from FCC, but i can’t put my finger on it yet. Track 2 is amazing, but i need to have a few more listens. If i wasn’t disturbed by the neanderthal who fell into our back garden on his way home from Howl At The Moon, i may be able to offer more. It took 2 hours in total to get his posh girlfriend out of Crawdaddy, come down and collect him, and get him out on the street. Trying to carry a 16 stone sack of spuds with his trousers around his ankles is no mean feat!
So the bloggers have sabotaged my carefully thought out Stars campaign. I’m doomed, i’m scripting my letter of resignation at present. Yet another disastrous campaign to add to the long list.
At least i have one ace up my sleeve, in the new Los Campesinos single. Here’s the video, http://threeimaginarygirls.com/node/6673
Black Flag and Fugazi fans beware, you’re not going to like this one bit. If i was young enough and skinny enough i’d be straight down to Antics to pogo along. This song makes me feel really old for some reason.
I have to agree with everyone, the Cadence Weapon album is exceptional. Pedro’s persistent badgering has paid off, cheers for making me check it out.
Other highlights include Animal Collective(Panda Bear still better though), Liars, Efterklang, Les Savy Fav, and James Mc Fadden’s goal against France.
September 17th, 2007 at 1:00 pm
How slow am I? I just found out you’re blogging again Sinead. Welcome back.
September 17th, 2007 at 4:56 pm
Re: the upping of tracks. I think to some degree the record industry accepts it as common practice at this point that bloggers will upload individual songs from leaks and to some degree it’s part of the hype building mechanism and saves them having to shell out money they’re unwilling/unable to spend on marketing and advertising when getting a positive mention on something like Brooklynnvegan is worth more than any poster space they buy.
At least that’s what I say to myself to justify the upping of stuff off the pre-release leaks I’ve grabbed in the past few months on my blog. But bloggers for the most part are not part of the legitimate/traditional media so don’t really stand to lose much in terms of label access/promos as that’s not where we get our stuff from.
As for the Beirut album, my initial thoughts on it have solidified in the past few weeks and I’m not certain that it’s a superior effort to it’s patchy predecessor. Nothing tops Postcards from Italy though.
September 18th, 2007 at 4:35 pm
Les Savy Fav are sounding good