Hadsel

Hadsel is a stunning set of songs that demand and deserve your undivided attention, put your phone to the side, finish your household chores, and allow Beirut’s latest to transport you to a meditative state.

Hadsel is the sound of a weary man dealing out his thoughts on a table in a cabin far away, and using extraordinary musicianship to put them in order. The result is a lush, majestic album.

This mix of warmth and wariness permeates Hadsel and, despite its idiosyncratic inspirations and unorthodox instrumentation, may well make it a timely and timeless destination for those who relate to its juxtaposition of comfort and alienation.

Emerging from the Norwegian shadows, the gentle genius has again struck with his best work to date.

These dozen tracks have a pure, hymnal quality. Rather than sounding bleak or dark you can hear the healing process under way.

"It's not too late to find where you are," he sings on The Tern; Hadsel seems to tremble on the brink of that revelation. [Dec 2023, p.88]

Hadsel sounds both ethereal and earthly. [Dec 2023, p.27]

Hadsel is a new beginning for Beirut that sounds like old times, a record born of despair and solitude that still feels full of life.

As when he first did it nearly two decades ago, it is an affirming, warm kind of music to serve as a soundtrack for the next valley surely coming for us all.

He rarely reveals much of his true intent throughout, relying upon platitudes that, while truthful, make Hadsel sound a little thin in places. But Condon knows his audience well, resorting to a heavily cinematic atmosphere that will have his listeners contemplating their own aspirations rather than focusing on his. Just like he intended to do.