I've read 10 reviews of this album, 6 critics liked it, 4 didn't. Below is my attempt at aggregating all those reviews.
This album is actually a double EP. The other EP is Realpeople's (Zach Condon's pre-Beirut name) Holland.
Zach Condon (leader of Beirut) is starting to come across as a musical tourist. He goes someplace new, soaks in some music, becomes inspired and then writes his own music. March of the Zapotec was born from Condon's trip to Oaxaca Mexico where he heard some Mexican funeral music and ended up recording six songs with a local 19-piece band.
Holland on the other hand is some lo-fi electronica that drew comparisons to the Magnetic Fields and Boards of Canada.
The element that holds these two EPs together is Condon's voice. It's amazing. And strangely almost always described as a "croon", but whatever. Ultimately, it's solid work from an amazingly talented singer/musician. It could use a little more focus on writing songs instead of creating atmosphere. Also the critics who didn't like the EPs thought that it was uneven. And I get the feeling critics will really start ripping him if he doesn't settle on a style sooner or later.
i love beirut. this cd, especially realpeople holland, makes me want to travel and love and live. i love it. love. it.
Frankly I do not understand this CD, nonetheless it is quite enjoyable. The first half features songs punctuated by wheezing brass horns, with heavy emphasis on the tuba no less. Then the second half of the CD abruptly cuts over to a pronounced techno pop sound. One minute the listener is entranced in a sleepy sunny plaza somewhere south of the border, and then suddenly whisked off to a disco in Amsterdam. Why the discontinuity in the music ? Why not make two CDS ? Who knows, but somehow it works and is kind of cool in the juxtaposition of sounds. This listener enjoyed the second musical alter ego a little more. The lyrics hovering in and out, over electronica, are seamless and rather haunting.
For the record, "March of the Zapotec/Holland" is not an album. It's two EPs.
For that matter, it's not really Beirut as you know it -- apparently Zach Condon has been going to Mexico and diddling around with some electronic instrumentation. Not many artists could smoosh together Eastern European rhythms with Latin instrumentation, and then top it off with a dash of the Postal Service. But fortunately Condon pulls it off.
Apparently "March of the Zapotec" was influenced by a recent trip to Oaxaca, and as a result the gypsyish flavour of the music is tinged with some Latin colour. After the styles clash in the opening "Zocalo," Condon's band sways into the languid brassy "La Llorona," and the gloriously Spanish-flavoured "My Wife."
After that, it's into the melancholy trumpets and dancy grandeur of "The Akara" ("So long to these kite strings/so long since I've been saved... tasting more, wasting more..."), and the twisting meandering "On A Bayonet," which sounds like an excuse to exercise the horns. And the first part finishes with "The Shrew," a more sprightly little tune that wouldn't sound out of place on a Decemberists album.
But wait, there's more!
On the other hand, "Holland" is done under Condon's pseudonym "Realpeople," and it's pretty obvious why -- he's going into Postal Service territory. "My Night With the Prostitute from Marseille" is a sparkling peppy little electronic number, but it manages to retain the warmth of Condon's other work. That electronic vein runs through the rest of the album -- darting trip-hop waves over soaring vocals, a couple gypsyish melodies tied up in thin threads of electronica. Only "No Dice" goes too far with the electronic thing, sacrificing melody for the funky techno explorations.
After diddling around European-inspired pop for a couple albums, Beirut's sound is starting to branch out into unexplored territory.Given that it's almost completely made up of experimental stuff, "March of the Zapotec/Holland" is a pretty enjoyable little collection of songs, and Condon manages to pull it off with rare style, and hints at other directions where he may go in future musical journeys.
He uses the usual array of Eastern European instrumentation here -- drums, mournful horns, rattling cans, accordion, some strings -- and the same sense of melancholy suffuses his songs. But the collaboration of the Jimenez Band gives it a spicier sound and a sprightlier pace, although his explorations of the electronic soundscape sometimes go over the top. They're at the best when they complement the acoustics (as in "My Night With the Prostitute..."), not replace them.
Condon's voice is that of a young man looking out at the world after his second or third excursion into it -- experienced, yet able to appreciate its wonders. And his rich rolling voice are well suited to the lyrics ("And now outside/I see your eyes meet the sky/and I, I won't lie/I kept you here tonight... and I believed her then").
Beirut's double EP dabbles around in Latin music and electronica, and for the most part, "March of the Zapotec/Holland" gets it very, very right.
I liked some of music on this cd, but not as much as one of his more recent cds. it's still good to have as part of your collection.
