All roads lead to Beirut

Beirut at a performance

The band Beirut began as a solo project of frontman Zachary Condon in 2006. With a plethora of EPs and albums in its resume, Beirut is back with Artifacts that takes experiential musicianship to a whole new level. The latest double album is a collection of unreleased songs, early works, B-sides and EPs from its eclectic discography.

The interesting aspects of this album stem from the fact that it consists of Condon's earliest recordings from when he was 14 and figuring out his sound, which went on to become the sound of Beirut. In many ways, Artifacts is a documentation of the evolution of the band and Condon himself. This 26-track album is divided into four sections that have a story to tell in the sonic history of Beirut. The opening song Elephant gun gently nudges the listeners into a magical one and a half hours of an album that progresses with astonishing ease.

Using a range of instruments is a signature sound of the band, and it does not disappoint as the music blends diverse sounds into a harmonic reverie. Songs such as Carousels and Fyodor dormant are cheerful and uplifting. A lot of the music in this album is easily recognisable as it has been inspired from their previous EPs including Lon Gisland. The album also has endearing covers like Brazilian singer-songwriter Caetano Veloso's O Leãozinho and many tracks in this section of the album are intriguing to say the least. The story in Artifacts is the story of Beirut and a personal history of Condon, and of the people he collaborated with along the way.

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