Gallipoli
Beirut\'s itinerant singer-songwriter Zach Condon has exhibited a pronounced level of musical wanderlust over the years. Past releases from his indie-folk band showed deep reverence for music from Oaxaca (*March of the Zapotec*) to Eastern Europe (*Gulag Orkestar*). Their fifth studio album, *Gallipoli*, references the seaside Italian town, where Condon and producer Gabe Wax embedded themselves. The album is pure Beirut—melancholic in tone, reflective in word, exploratory in creation. It’s easy to get lost in the strut and melodies of “Gauze für Zah” and the woodblock metronome of “Varieties of Exile,” or be wooed by instruments like the Farfisa organ (“Landslide,” “Gallipoli”) and the well-worn and well-loved horns and ukulele. But songs like “We Never Lived Here” and “When I Die” steer the focus back to Condon’s lyrical acumen and emotional and revelatory delivery. *Gallipoli* feels like Beirut’s proud, if imperfect, monument, dappled by life and warmed by the Mediterranean sun.
Zach Condon reunites with his old Farfisa on his fifth album, but otherwise he remains cozily ensconced in his twee wheelhouse.
Soaking the sound they’ve spent over a decade cultivating in dazzling Italian sun, Beirut’s latest is a welcome summer holiday.
From his new base in Berlin — as well as New York and Southern Italy — indie-rock expat Zach Condon delivers his most emotional set yet.
The fifth full-length by Zach Condon's Beirut, Gallipoli is a sequel of sorts to 2015's No No No in that it returns co-producer Gabe Wax and employs similar instrumentation, including Condon's Farfisa organ.
Beirut were at the vanguard of indie rock's world music phase, and the band's Balkan horns were part of a landscape littered with West Afric...
The test of a good Beirut song: Does it move you to tears and inexplicably so? "Gallipoli," the first single from Zach Condon's latest, passes the litmus in its first three bars.
Zac Condon shipped his organ - previously owned by a traveling circus’ keyboard player - from Santa Fe to New York in order to write this
‘Gallipoli’ is the sound of Zach Condon reinvigorated, in love, obsessing less about the process and more focused on the joy that distinguishes Beirut.
Beirut, the band led by Zach Condon, is a very interesting project with a distinct tendency of blending indie rock concepts with a world music perspective...
Beirut dazzle us in a world of sound while not pushing their writing to the same standards in our review of the unique 'Gallipoli'
Zach Condon’s voice is as lovely as ever, on tracks soothingly yet dismayingly similar to past albums