Gallipoli by Beirut

Here we are again with yet another predictable pick on the 2019 Bacon Top 31. Beirut, led by impresario Zach Condon, are as close to “worldwide indie rock” as you’ll ever get. I’ve been a fan of the band ever since their debut in 2006. In that time, the band has only released five LPs, only one of which ended up on the Top 31, 2011’s The Rip Tide (#29 that year). Prior to that, a set of fantastic EPs titled March of the Zapotec/Holland was #8 on my first-ever Top 31, in 2009.

Condon most often plays trumpet and sings in a melodic, vibrato-tinged and beautiful voice. The songs he writes and the band performs often involve a full horn section and strings, mixed with a handful of unexpected and dissonant sounds that coalesce into song after gorgeous song. When I first saw Condon and the band perform, way back on their first tour in 2006, Condon was only 19 years old and bothered by the fact that, due to archaic Washington-state law, he was not allowed to spend time hanging out in the Crocodile bar before or after the show due to his age. He was precocious and difficult, but who can blame him. The kid must have been hearing that he was a musical genius for many years leading up to that tour, and that was only ever going to give him a big head about who he is and what he’s owed.

This new album, Gallipoli, his fifth, has no surprises. Much like the Andrew Bird album from yesterday, this is predictably Beirut, and therefore predictably good. If you’ve not heard Beirut before, I suggest going all the way back to the beginning, to 2006’s Gulag Orkestar, and then work your way forward. Despite the 13 years separating that first album from this newest one, the music itself stands free of time, is of a time outside of yesterday, today, or tomorrow. And that’s what makes it so great.

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17. My Finest Work Yet by Andrew Bird
18. Four of Arrows by Great Grandpa
19. Designer by Aldous Harding
20. Norman Fucking Rockwell! by Lana Del Rey
21. Our Pathetic Age by DJ Shadow
22. Juice B Crypts by Battles
23. Pony by Orville Peck
24. Hyperspace by Beck
25. Eraserland by Strand of Oaks
26. Dogrel by Fontaines DC
27. You’re the Man by Marvin Gaye
28. Big Wows by Stealing Sheep
29. 1000 gecs by 100 gecs
30. In the Morse Code of Brake Lights by The New Pornographers
31. Radiant Dawn by Operators

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