The Rip Tide Essay

Now, let me start this post review off with a disclaimer: I have not listened to this album very much. I have not bathed in it like I did for my review of Bon Iver’s For Emma, Forever Ago, or the Lumineers’ Cleopatra. I have not surrounded myself with it for weeks on end in order to fully understand it, because, honestly, it has been very easy to listen to other things. Yet it does not take long to see that Beirut is insanely innovative and inspired.

Of all the albums I have reviewed so far, The Rip Tide takes the most risks. This risky nature can be seen in the vocals alone. The lead vocalist, Zach Condon, often sounds strained and slightly out of tune, yet he chugs along, singing with poised gusto as he thrusts his voice into a series of
My one one big complaint with The Rip Tide, and all of Beirut’s music is this: it lacks variety of sounds. I believe this is mostly due to their use of the same instruments in the same combinations in almost every song. There is always plucky, simple guitar picking, diseased-sounding trumpets, short piano notes, exhausted vocals, and militant drum beats; there is no diversification of instruments used. I am not saying that it is bad for a band to use the same instruments often. After all, that's pretty much how it works (especially in rock and roll). Bands have to find what they like to use, and that is a part of their style. My complaint with Beirut is that they do not use these instruments in any variety of combinations. All the elements are always present, always going full-force. For example, I would like to see just one song that consists of his voice and a guitar alone on the album. The constant presence of all those elements gets tiresome, and I almost want to give my ears a rest. I think The Rip Tide would have benefitted from not just throwing every instrument in the band into every song, but considering what really needs to be in each song. (The one song on the album that does this really well is “Santa