Beiruit - Hadsel

 

I'm aware that in my attempts to write about music that I like on a daily basis on It Starts, I'm prone to a certain inevitable repetition in terms of the sentiments I express and the language I use. There are only so many adjectives in the thesaurus after all and I've been doing this for ten years. My own particular weakness is a tendency to resort to lovely and loveliness to descibe the music I'm hearing far too much. I almost have to slap my wrist at my desk where I write.

OK. So that's my problem. But when it comes to describing the music that Zach Condon and Beirut make and have been making for well over fifteen years now, I find this tendency of mine particularly vexing. Lovely and loveliness come immediately repeatedly and inevitably to mind. After all. Beirut deal with the loveliness of much of the world and the experience of living in it. And for that we should all be suitably grateful. I certainly am.

I was first made aware of Beirut and the enchanting music they make by an American friend of mine, during my time in Riga, Latvia shortly after they first started making and releasing music in 2006. I've followed their trail of beauty intermittently though somewhat absent mindedly since. I've never latched onto a particular song or album. You don't really need to with this band. The things I've heard have consistently cast a spell.

Beruit's music is Indie Folk, played on a set of instruments you don't often hear in Pop Music and haven't since Peter Buck plied his trade in the mid career days of R.E.M. This gives their music an Eastern European nomadic quality and one of a specific religious awe and stamp.

It's the spiritual quality of latest Beirut album Hadsel that I seized on and appreciated most while immersing myself in it just now. It's a Beirut record. Not particularly an advance or retreat from the magic of their previous records. They're consistent and reliable (admirable things to be), and conform to their higher, guiding principles at all times. They occupy their own space and make their own sound which is all we can ask for from anyone. Hadsel is a truly gorgeous place and achievement.