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91There's a melancholic beauty in the melodies of Zach Condon that conjure a cinematic romanticism.
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The debut album was good, but this is better. Much, much better; the kind of record I will happily and willingly return to long after this review is dead and buried.
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90This album, like its predecessor, is stunning. [Fall 2007, p.91]
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Credit Condon with a vivid imagination to go with his intuitive songwriting ability, and embrace The Flying Club Cup as one of the best albums of 2007.
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It's a slow-motion ballet immortalized on album.
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This is one of the best albums of the year, from a verifiable talent and one of the scene's most exciting young songwriters.
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Condon's theatrical croon and rich string arrangements hold the album together while it tells a musical story about the acculturation of the boozy.
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80Like a feral Arcade Fire making whoopee in the Third Republic, The Flying Cup Club is an often magical listen and deserving of a wider audience than it will probably reach.
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Despite being the unmistakable sound of Beirut, this is not the "Orkestar" extension so widely expected. Rather than congesting the listener with frantic Eastern European folk shanties, a poignant nobility and romantic notion of contemporary France permeates its way into your conscience with unbridled zeal.
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80Flying Club Cup would be a triumph even with those layers stripped away; that's not to say that the cultural patina obscures the "real" songs underneath, but its removal allows us to sidestep mind-numbing questions about authenticity and intention.
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80One either engages with the gears of this get-up, or not. If you do, the delights abound from start to finish, and it really makes no difference whether each song intends to evoke a different French city, as they do on The Flying Club Cup.
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80Condon has a tendency to over-emote vocally, but even at its most melodramatic this music's rhapsodic swirl is undeniable. [Nov 2007, p.104]
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80If you can forgive Condon's mannered delivery and overabundance of drunken waltz rhythms, this is an audacious experiment in cultural appropriation, an enchanting musical holiday in someone else's misery.
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It's thoughtful and fun and sophisticated, utterly alluring, another fantastic success by Zach Condon.
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80Any charges of cultural tourism are rebuffed by the magnificence of the music. [Nov 2007, p.142]
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80Condon's rich, barrel-aged croon is buffeted by a whirl of brass, accordion, ukulele and Owen Pallett's fleet-footed strings, sweeping towards a finale so magnificently moving that the only correct response is a standing ovation.
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80For anyone seeking a new sound, in this case a vibrant take on Balkan folk through the eyes of a Westerner, there will be no disappointment.
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The new album conjures something of Condon's own imagination, more deftly-etched romantic fiction than dry travelogue, and is all the better for it.
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It might not be indie (whatever that means these days), and it's certainly not rock, but The Flying Club Cup is consistent in its idyllic, perhaps idealistic charms.
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80It's a more pensive presentation--dare I say it: more mature.
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78The Flying Club Cup doesn't feel quite as revelatory as the debut from the group. That said, it's still a solid follow-up, and the collaboration with Palette really pays dividends in grandiosity of sound.
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Even if The Flying Club Cup is slightly less vital than the debut, Condon remains an ever-growing talent that bears plenty of notice. [Fall 2007, p.72]
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70The dramatic arc of these songs is built around the way instruments lurch into place and dance drunkenly around one another before staggering off once again.
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70Beirut actually rock, in their extremely geeky way. [Nov 2007, p.114]
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70It's difficult at times, though, to pick out one song against another and some tracks are too same-y or too heavy-eyed for a second glance.
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70Condon's lyrics and his singing are nondescript at best, but Beirut retains a ragged majesty that can best be described as, well, French.
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It is a better album than its predecessor in almost every regard, but it hardly shows Condon taking risks.
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The Flying Club Cup is a good album. If you're a fan of "Gulag Orkestar," it's probably a great album. But aside from 'Cliquot,' it's more of the same.
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60Indulging in a baroque concept that includes chanson, 60s French café swing and lush pop, he has no qualms about pushing the drama levels vocally. He warbles yearning lyrics on songs like La Banlieue, Un Dernier Verre (Pour La Route), alongside swaying accordion waltzes such as The Penalty. Best served with croissants and café au lait.
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Committed to romantic lyricism above all, Condon isn't quite the tunesmith to fully justify this passion, compensating with melismatic slurs and a Gallic disdain for consonants. These tics don't do much for lyrics he's clearly been working on
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50On this disc, Beirut is a one trick pony, albeit one with a pretty good trick.
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TomH.10A great second album from Beirut, beautiful and well worhty of critic's praise for it.