Buy Now
| Buy on |
|
- Critic score
- Publication
- By date
-
Aug 12, 2011The Rip Tide, though, never bursts at the seams, and never feels too slight. Each number in the collection packs weight, and repeat listenings allow all nine to unfold their unique beauty.
-
Aug 22, 2011[A] beautiful little album.
-
Dec 6, 2011Condon spends much of Rip Tide writing in first person, and it lends an air of much needed intimacy to the always gorgeous, yet historically elusive Beirut sound.
-
Sep 1, 2011These ideas of acceptance, hope and personal reflection make The Rip Tide an accomplished, restrained record, which sees Condon forgetting his travels, and forging his own native sound.
-
Aug 31, 2011Condon's songs have always been flooded with emotion that sound both deliriously pretty and endlessly sad or foreboding, and The Rip Tide is no exception.
-
Aug 30, 2011The Rip Tide is moderate in ambition, and hardly a masterwork, if such things empirically exist.
-
Aug 29, 2011In other world they might be drenched in sorrow, but here they're nice and introspective, like strategic resting points to make the glide that much more beatific.
-
MojoAug 26, 2011For a record about a lonely planet, it makes all the right connections. [Sept. 2011, p. 96]
-
Aug 25, 2011It's less flashy than previous efforts, but the thrill here is of witnessing a songwriter's talent maturing.
-
Aug 22, 2011This is easily Beirut's most accessible-sounding effort yet.
-
Aug 22, 2011That this is both Beirut's deepest and most instantly enjoyable album is obvious.
-
UncutAug 18, 2011The Riptide glides by satisfyingly. [Sep 2011, p.83]
-
Alternative PressAug 18, 2011How about just plain old "unbelievably goddamn gorgeous?"
-
Aug 17, 2011Such music deserves strong praise, even when it's simply another great album to hear from one of music's many rising stars.
-
Q MagazineAug 16, 2011Zach Condon's troupe emerge from indie safe house on triumphant third. [Sept. 2011, p. 109]
-
Aug 16, 2011The Rip Tide establishes Beirut's music as not merely an ode to Condon's worldly bag of influences, but an entity that stands on its own.
-
Aug 16, 2011This is the most consistently impressive Beirut record yet, proving its creator is now able to harness his occasional excesses and directly engage with his audience without losing the invention and flair that make him such a rare talent.
-
Aug 16, 2011The pleasure in Beirut's music has always largely been in what it evokes – a kind of melancholy tempered with optimism and sometimes celebration. And it evokes marvellously here: whatever current Condon found himself caught up in that led to the creation of these songs, it's one you feel he's happy to coast a while yet.
-
Aug 12, 2011Though it may not capture our hearts as instantly as the ideas of nostalgia and romance, The Rip Tide ushers in different dimensions of emotion and that is a progression to be admired.
-
Aug 12, 2011As a representation of how it feels to find yourself helplessly adrift, The Rip Tide simultaneously strikes a nerve and soothes it; that's a pretty old trick, but Beirut have done it with the right mixture of solipsism and grace to bring the feelings flooding back again.
-
Aug 12, 2011His antiquated fantasies still very much belong to him, but it's still a joy to peer inside them--even if the canvases they're displayed on have shrunk ever so slightly.
-
Aug 12, 2011On the surface, Beirut has nothing in common with classic rock, except that Condon also knows that a memorable tune can bring disparate cultures together as persuasively as any fancy arrangement.
-
Aug 30, 2011Beirut always obtains a robust bottom-end in the live setting. The same is true of this wistful nine-song set.
-
Aug 29, 2011The songs are often still a little too cute, too twee and self-satisfied, but they're just as catchy without the burden of self-reflexive exoticism.
-
Aug 17, 2011By leaving behind the experimentations and the peculiarities of their former albums, Beirut create an album that's all too easy to hold on to and all too easy to let go of.
-
Aug 15, 2011For all the excitement and dramatic tension of the opening tracks, Condon himself seems unsurprised by his songs the rest of the way, and you might find yourself reacting the same way. Pleasantly surprised at first, then just pleasant.
-
Aug 15, 2011The Rip Tide lacks an extension into flair, even though their music is already considered exotic by the instrumentation alone, the creative panache is missing.
-
Aug 12, 2011ere are flashes and flourishes throughout The Rip Tide that recall influences explored on earlier recordings, but on their first full-length album in four years Beirut sounds more like a well-traveled American band with great stories to tell.
-
Aug 23, 2011He'll never be as good as he once was until he hooks up with funereal Balkan scales again, but imitation Magnetic Fields on "Santa Fe" is better than nothing, right?
User score distribution:
-
Positive: 34 out of 35
-
Mixed: 0 out of 35
-
Negative: 1 out of 35
-
Sep 28, 2011
-
Aug 31, 2011
-
Aug 2, 2014