Pitchfork

Beirut crooner Zach Condon told Pitchfork he was throwing himself into the world of "classical pop" on his latest album. Son Lux collagist Ryan Lott is a classically trained composer recording for Anticon. Jeez, could they have been made for each other? Lott breaks Condon's chanson-styled "A Sunday Smile", from last year's The Flying Club Cup, into an eerie, percussive lament that would fit in well beside the tracks on Son Lux debut album At War With Walls and Mazes, including the previously posted "Break". Condon's swaying vocal melody previously had the old-world communal feel of a handed-down drinking song, but on Son Lux's "Want" remix his words are chopped up, another tile in the track's complicated mosaic. Squonking digital beats and wooden drill-team clatter are joined by a loping, almost Caribbean rhythm, operatic female backing vocals, minor-key chiming, Condon's trumpet, and some strings. "All I wanted was the best for our lives," Condon sings. All Lott seems to want to do is to bring that feeling alive as vividly as possible through sound. That's a tall order, as the French don't say but Starbucks does; still, more often than not he comes close.