The best album to come out of Albuquerque since
the Shins decamped for the Pacific Northwest, the debut album by
Beirut (aka New Mexico-born 19-year-old singer/songwriter
Zach Condon) bears an immediate resemblance both to Denver's
DeVotchKa and the current passions of the Athens, GA, crowd formerly associated with the Elephant 6 stable. Like
DeVotchKa,
Condon is heavily influenced by Eastern European folk music and, to a lesser extent, the mariachi trumpets and Latin rhythms of the desert Southwest: the songs on
Gulag Orkestar are lousy with mandolins and similarly plinky members of the string instrument family, accordions, horns, and hand percussion clearly played with dramatic in-studio arm flourishes. But like the Athens folks (some of whom appear here in a supporting role, most notably A Hawk and a Hacksaw's
Jeremy Barnes),
Condon isn't interested in mere approximations of traditional forms.
Condon and friends use the folk instruments primarily as really cool-sounding textures, exotic backdrops for
Condon's melodic indie folk tunes and impressionistic lyrics. The lyrics, it must be said, are the album's most obvious flaw, clearly the work of a young, romantically inclined teen who has never been to Europe but has seen a lot of foreign art films about, like, Gypsies 'n' stuff. Ignore the clunky lyrics -- easy enough to do since
Condon is an unexpectedly appealing singer with a rich, mellifluous voice that, no kidding, recalls the great bel canto crooners of the pre-rock era (along with a little
Nick Cave) -- and
Gulag Orkestar is an infinitely more appealing album. ~ Stewart Mason