On the early tracks of Beirut’s 4th full album ‘No No No,’ Zach Condon, head honcho of the world music outfit, seems somehow weary. Yes, it has long been his approach, a compelling laid back yet motivated drive, but some…
Album | Beirut – No No No
Tag: Beirut
Live | The Ultimate Festival of 2014 – A Greenman with some Rum-Tiddily-Um Cider
Small, slick and smoothly put together, Greenman entered its 12th year on the festival scene last weekend. Hidden in the heart of the Brecon Beacons, the black mountains play host to a 4-day extravaganza, packed back to back with some…
Interview | Introducing…Keston Cobblers’ Club
Keston Cobblers’ Club are on a self-appointed mission to ‘heel your soles’. Luckily they’re a great deal better at music than puns, combining truly lovely old-school folk with their classical training, trad jazz and a modern-day quirkiness. FFS has been…
Festivals | The FFS guide to Field Day
Say it quietly but it looks like summer is finally here, and London is gearing up for its hippest festival of the season, Field Day – and what a stonking line-up it has. Here are FFS’s recommendations to negotiate your…
Album | Beirut – The Rip Tide
Now, I’m not a parent, but I imagine there is an overwhelming sense of relief when your offspring makes the switch from gurgling, screeching waif in need of constant attention to something that is more developed and offers a little…
Live | Arcade Fire, Mumford & Sons, Beirut, The Vaccines, Owen Pallett @ Hyde Park, London, 30 June
Arcade Fire played a pleasing smattering of hits, the best for me being ‘Roccoco’ (lots of good ooh-ing from the crowd), ‘Neighborhood #1 (Tunnels)’, which made me a bit teary, ‘Haiti’, ‘Intervention’, ‘We Used To Wait’, ‘Keep The Car Running’ and ‘Sprawl II (Mountains Beyond Mountains)’. The band have written so many good songs, and seem to nail a half-disillusioned idealism that’s very definitive of music now, agreeing with Fleet Foxes in wanting to escape ‘the sprawl’ but not being sure if that’s possible. They’re also slightly in love with the dead shopping malls, the emptiness of the suburbs; their protesting edge is questioning, searching.
End of the Road line-up: Marling, Mogwai, Midlake, Mangan
End of the Road, FFS’s favourite festival, has added another slew of bands to its aleady brilliant line-up. Mogwai will be joining headliners Midlake, Beirut and Laura Marling. Also confirmed are The Leisure Society, Dry The River, Joan as a…