Beirut’s full-length Gulag Orkestar (2006) was good because it was tightly arranged and well-executed, but it was outstanding because of the indefinable tang of ethnicity with which it was infused. “Interior of a Dutch House” finds that aesthetic trimmed back to allow a more conventional piano pop tone to surface, but not so far recessed as to surrender the idiosyncratic appeal that is fast becoming a trademark. A spare tambourine beat ticks happily under the layered vocal tracks, nasal yet sing-songy, until fading to a close as the song enters its minute-and-a-half second act. This kind of disjuncture usually leaves me cold, but in this context it serves a legitimate structural function, an auditory break before Zach Condon retools the chorus and throws it back at you just to show off. (He’s a prodigy, you know.)

This music is endlessly interesting, and by that I mean things both good and bad. Astute readers will recognize “interesting” as an academic word whose use in the musical lexicon is often reserved for backhanded compliments; “interesting music” is usually a punch-pulling euphemism for a sound that shows promise but is still decidedly lacking a key element. It is not without that connotation here. Condon, for all his structural prowess and natural ability, has still not managed to make genuinely evocative music, and “Interior” is not the exception. If and when he manages to make us invest in the music beyond rote encomiums about his musical ability and the novelty of gypsy pop then he will be firing on all cylinders. The raw promise of “Interior of a Dutch House,” along with that of Gulag Orkestar , stands as surety that this feat, when accomplished, will be a hell of a thing to wrap your ears around.

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