“In the five years since Gulag Orkestar became a surprise success, the dialog surrounding indie culture has drastically shifted away from flesh-and-blood odysseys like Condon’s and toward synth textures and vague electronic sighs. (Arguably, Condon and the current crop of emotionally distanced indie stars share nostalgia for experiences not necessarily known first-hand, but that’s another conversation.) What’s more, many of his peers are in drastically different places, both aesthetically and commercially, since Beirut’s last full-length, 2007’s excellent The Flying Club Cup.”
Whatever, dude. Zach was literally making chillwave music way before he did any of that horn shit. Get off this temporal shit; time’s a fucking illusion.
I don’t disagree with the meat of the review (such that it is), but this “indie culture has drastically shifted away from flesh-and-blood odysseys” part is rank bullshit. What does that even mean? Does it mean that the Fucked Up album isn’t part of indie culture? Or that the Girls video your site just posted is now beholden to “vague electronic sighs”? The last three BNMs are arguably electronic-inspired albums, but the six before that are decidedly not. Does that mean there’s been a sea change in “indie culture” over the last two months? The tail has a snake mouth on its end. There’s peanut butter in my chocolate. Better: the only artist who really brings the monoculture is Kanye. Every other context is up in the air.
I suppose if, as the reviewer paraphrases Marc Hogan saying you get what you put into listening to Beirut (I imagine, too, by extension, all music), then Fitzmaurice didn’t put a lot into his listening. (Or that that apothegm doesn’t necessarily hold true always.) He was inspired to write this phrase, “his powerful pipes swing to and fro”. His best crack at deciphering the album (besides reading a NYT profile of Zach) is to try to connect the weather to songwriting (as well, I’ve been snowed in in Santa Fe, and they get a lot of snow out there, too), and, as quoted above, write a few paragraphs about chillwave and electronic music or something. It’s just a shameful review.
3.5
