The Rip Tide | Loppylugs

Submitted by Glyn Lewis on 17 February 2013 - 9:43pm

Cover:

Artist:

Beirut

album-ID:

a_110

Nationality:

USA

Year:

2 011

Release-year:

0000

Num-of-tracks:

Track-listing:

A Candle’s Fire*Santa Fe*East Harlem*Goshen*Payne’s Bay*The Rip Tide*Vagabond*The Peacock*Port Of Call

Length-in-mins:

Nominator:

Bean

meeting-ID:

m_41

Now-num:

Spotify-URL:

7ri0EOAjJuuyawBbbEyU2L

Grooveshark-URL:

The+Rip+Tide/6522208

Short-title:

ripTide

nominator-ID:

u_1

Meeting-date:

Tuesday, 27 March 2012

MusicBrainz-URL:

e8af260d-01e5-4196-ab94-18ad8404d638

Wikipedia-URL:

The_Rip_Tide

Spotify-link-type:

album

Metacritic-URL:

the-rip-tide/beirut

Discogs-URL:

Beirut-The-Rip-Tide/master/365368

Allmusic-URL:

the-rip-tide-mw0002168023

BBC-URL:

h4pn

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review-form data

guest-list data

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reviewers-IDs data

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80

reviewed by

Glyn Lewis

He's the only one who knows the words

3-4-5-6-7-8

It feels like a breath of fresh air to come to this album - there's a a sort of rustic, simple, naturalness to it, without it feeling affected or anachronistic. There are lots of elements which are perhaps just personally appealing – the sparse arrangements, clattering drums, exposed accordion and piano playing – it's all gorgeous stuff to me. He's got a few other disparate elements including a cheap drum machine rhythm, New Orleans style marching bands and various brass instruments but it all fits easily into one unified approach. It's immediate, simple stuff, maybe it's a bit too simple, but I find a genuine sorrowfulness to it which is moving.
80

reviewed by

Mike Beaton

Very listenable, and has its fair share of standout moments.

1-2-6

5-8

The Rip Tide is Beirut’s third full length album – if it’s hard to sum up in a few words, it could perhaps best be summarised as slow, indie, accordion and brass-based pop. The band is an offshoot of the solo work of Santa Fe based musician Zach Condon, and Condon still acts as song-writer and lead singer – though on this album the music was created more collaboratively, with the band playing together as the tracks evolved, rather than just laying down the parts to pre-existing material by Condon. The album is certainly very listenable, and has its fair share of standout moments. To my mind, ‘Goshen’ is a beautiful piece of pop, though it may be too slow for some tastes. Several other tracks (such as ‘Santa Fe’ and ‘Port of Call’) lift the pace, and the mood, though an air of melancholy is never too far away. Condon’s band, though, certainly have something. If you don’t believe me, ask the population of Brazil. Apparently, the fact that a US-based band are prepared to write music with a more international feel has garnered them a huge following over there – the fact that their music was featured on a highly popular Brazilian mini-series may also have helped. Their popularity is such that it has spawned the phenomenon of ‘Beirutando’, in which tribute bands from around the country perform covers of Beirut’s tracks, after giving them a Latin makeover. To my mind, there’s good reason for the enthusiasm. It certainly is nice to hear an American band becoming successful, without fitting into the standard genres of pop, rock and R’n’B which have dominated all of our charts for too long.
72

reviewed by

Neil Hornsey

1-2-3-8

A very pleasant album. Good songs, nice vocals and harmony arrangements, and brief enough to play in one hit without losing concentration. Not groundbreaking but listenable and enjoyable.
67

reviewed by

Matthew Baker

Competent yet unengaging

8

Simple songs bolstered by multi instrumentation and arrangement. Altogether a bit too NICE for my liking.
50

reviewed by

Richard Norbury