Beirut - No No No

The title ‘No No No’ brings up an image of despair. Zach Condon, banging his head against a wall, searching for an answer and hitting nothing but dead ends. Turns out that’s a neat summary of what’s happened to the New York musician over the past three years. Coupling tour exhaustion with severe writer’s block, he found himself completely incapable of writing the kind of hooks that defined Beirut’s first three records.

True to the project’s continental, travel-happy spirit, it took moving to another country and a sudden burst of inspiration to get the wheels turning again. ‘No No No’’s title-track, then, might on paper be a companion to Beirut being stuck in a rut, but the band sound more free-flowing and capable of new ideas than ever. Playful synth parts spiral out in different directions, as staple horn sections follow suit, building on a sense of adventure. Despair might be a precursor to this album, but the end result is a complete opposite scenario.