BEIRUT Schallplatten & CDs

Review: Hadsel is a first full length record since Beirut dropped their 2019 work Gallipoli. It is the first on Zach Condon's own Pompeii Records label and was recorded on the Norwegian album from which it takes its name. Condon had to cancel a tour in 2019 to focus on getting well after a breakdown and used the process to recover after growing issues around self doubt. The beautiful songs reflect the vulnerability of the artists with gorgeous melodies and layers of subtly rousing chords, supple rhythms and great contrast between light and dark.

Review: Hadsel, Zach Condon AKA Beirut's first album in four years, is named in honour of the place in which much of it was recorded, a remote Norwegian island that the neo-folk artist stayed in back in 2019. The tranquillity of his surroundings, as well as access to limited instruments (a lo-fi drum machine, a church organ, a basic synthesiser and his trusty acoustic guitar, is reflected in the beauty and slow-burn nature of the music on show, which naturally pushes Condon's distinctive, emotionally charged vocals to the fore and tends towards the atmospheric and musically opaque. The results are genuinely beguiling, with our picks of a very strong bunch including 'The Tern', where Condon's voice sails above sustained organ chords, a tribal-tinged rhythm track, and life-affirming vocal harmonies, and the brass-enhanced warmth of 'So Many Plans'.

Review: It's been a turbulent four-year period leading up to the release of 'No No No' for Zach Condon, including a divorce, a breakdown and a period in hospital in Australia for exhaustion. Yet surprisingly, he appears to have arrived at the other side with what may be his most uplifting and direct record to date. Far from the orchestrated, nostalgic laments of his earlier work, 'No No No' evolved from songs written as a piano-led trio, and is a short and sweet work dominated by understated '70s pop style arrangements, representing a reinvention that strips back to the radiant melody that was always at the heart of his music.