Beirut "The Flying Club Cup" Album Reviews

PopMatters
"Gulag Orkestar was something of an indie sensation, and there’s no reason The Flying Club Cup won’t get a similarly warm reception—the music’s virtually the same. I hope that this success doesn’t let Condon avoid pushing himself on his next release. He may be a one-trick pony now, but he’s got the potential to grow into a very compelling circus." 5 out of 10

TinyMixTapes
"The Flying Club Cup is a good album. If you’re a fan of Gulag Orkestar, it’s probably a great album. But aside from “Cliquot,” it’s more of the same. What the album lacks in progression, it makes up in flair. And while that’s appealing for now, one can only hope that the elusive step forward is discovered before the third LP drops. What makes Condon’s repeated treading over of the same ground less stellar than someone like Jens Lekman’s (another artist content to hold steady) is that Beirut’s music shows no knack for experimentation; each Beirut song sounds more or less the same as the one that came before. While Lekman brings fresh tones and ideas to Night Falls Over Kortedala, Condon adds strings on Flying Club Cup. Like I said, it’s enough for now, but not enough to stop that feeling of indifference from washing over. As it stands, The Flying Club Cup is a really swell sounding re-recording of Gulag Orkestar, except with entirely new songs. And yet, when listening from a distance, they’re really not all that new anyway."

Courant
"It's pop music, in the sense that it's not really anything else, but Beirut's new album poses no threat to the Top-40 crowd. Mastermind Zach Condon is crafting songs more suited to the score of some long-lost '50s European art film, heavy with allegory and saturated with once-bright colors faded to sepia."

Music Vs Music
"One of the top 5 albums this year"