Eastern European-influenced indie folk pop from Albuquerque-via-Brooklyn youngster (19 years old!) Zach Condon. He has a soaring, almost crooning, baritone voice that sounds much older than he is; it sounds a bit like Andrew Bird’s to me. The instrumentation is often lush with lots of percussion and brass. He takes Balkan brass music as a big influence and there are some nice brass parts on the album. Jeremy Barnes (Neutral Milk Hotel, A Hawk and a Hacksaw) guests on the album. While I’m not completely in love with the album as a whole, I do love some of these songs.
-Adrian FCC: Clean (as far as I can tell)
My picks: 3, 4, 5, 7, 10, 11
1. starts with out-of-tune piano, accordion and wavering brass, then goes into a slow march.
2. med-slow. waltz-time accordion-based tune.
3. fast-strummed mandolin. chorus vocals. nice melody and orchestration
4. med-tempo ukulele and voice to begin, then full drums and later brass. I love this song, especially the brass parts.
5. med-fast. waltz-time accordion-based tune.
6. med tempo ukulele. plodding drums.
7. a bit out of place with electronic keyboards and drum sounds. they form a nice backdrop to his voice. more typical brass comes in between verses.
8. med tempo. a minute of drums and brass trills before the vocals come in. it’s mostly the instruments with small vocal parts.
9. med-slow ukulele and simple percussion to start. cello. Fades down and then comes in stronger with drums and brass.
10. med-slow ukulele and vox to begin. later simple brass and drums.
11. a bit of a reprise of 7. interspersed clapping. man, his voice is gorgeous on this song.

The first song, unlike the rest, is closer to true
slavic/balkan folk form.