Album Review: Beirut Take You Through Italy’s Gallipoli

Personally, I find Beirut to be one of the best artists out there. His usage of a horn section with tracks makes his music feel like the soundtrack to life’s marathon. The idea that life is a race is not uncommon. So often people think they have to get “somewhere” and fast, but yet they feel slow and lost as to what/where  that “somewhere” can be. Beirut’s Gallipoli feels like a gorgeous dramatization of this sentiment.

From “When I Die” to “Family Curse,” each track has Beirut fending off the darkness of living. He makes sadness feel like that starting point of our emotional life and happiness the end goal. For many, life can feel this way, and tracks like, “Varieties of Exile,” “Corfu,” and “We Never Lived Here,” have Beirut sining with an attractive sullenness. Nobody can avoid the rich magnetism of a sad song, and Beirut has a natural mournfulness to his vocality. He sings with a, potent, paced; as if life has punched him so many times he must permanently walk slowly so as not feel  jolting pains. Again, the image is tragically relatable. 

If there is a pain that no one has ever known to handle or avoid, but everyone has had to experience and heal, it is sadness. Whether it seem from anger, fear, or confusion, solemn note will, eventually, be pinned to your heart, and Beirut’s ability to plug in a horn section into a song grasps this epic truth. Throughout Beirut’s Gallipoli, the horned instruments sound like a radio in a desert; they bust through with vivacity amongst verses that speak to a sanding isolation. The concept is both perplexing and powerful when you think of how many times people have asked whether they make a difference. As the old adage goes, does a tree falling in the forest, actually, make a sound? 

Beirut’s Gallipoli is an excellent album. It is one of those records that completely surrounds you with its depth; making you feel as if Beirut’s voice and instrumentation are filled with profundity. At least enough deepness, that your ears can press into songs tracks like, “Landslide” and “I Giardini.” For More Information On Beirut And To Buy Gallipoli On February 1 Click Here.