The Flying Club Cup is the second studio album by Balkan folk-influenced indie folk band Beirut, released on October 9, 2007 on 4AD Records. The album was released on iTunes on September 4, 2007.
| Untitled | |
|---|---|
| Review scores | |
|---|---|
| Source | Rating |
| AllMusic |   [1] |
| Billboard | (favorable) [2] |
| Filter | (91%) [3] |
| Pitchfork Media | (8.0/10) [4] |
| Q | [5] |
| Rockfeedback | [6] |
| Robert Christgau |  [7] |
| Stylus | A− [8] |
| Virgin Media | [9] |
The album features string arrangements by Arcade Fire contributor Owen Pallett, better known by his former stage name Final Fantasy.[10]
Background
Condon said about the name and inspiration for the album: "Back in the early 1900s...there used to be this hot air balloon festival in Paris—[the album's] titled after that and after this very bizarre 1910 photo I found [by Léon Gimpel]. It's one of the first color photos ever made, at the World's Fair, and it...shows all these ancient hot air balloons about to take off in the middle of Paris. I just thought it was the most surreal image I'd seen in a long time." He also said about the album sound: "I was listening to a lot of Jacques Brel and French chanson music—pop songs shrouded in big, glorious, over-the-top arrangements and all this drama—and that was in some sense unfamiliar territory to me. So I started buying new instruments and relying on things I wasn't necessarily comfortable with, like French horns and euphoniums, carrying these big, epic big brass parts that I used to do all on trumpets, and working with accordion and organ instead of all ukulele—very much throwing myself in the world of classical pop music, I guess you could say."
According to the program notes given out during Beirut's performance at The Society for Ethical Culture in New York on September 24, 2007, each song on the album is intended to evoke a different French city (although Guaymas, Sonora is a Mexican city).
The album's second track, Nantes, was sampled on the 2012 10 Day mixtape from American rapper Chance the Rapper.[11]
Track listing
All tracks are written by Zach Condon, except where noted
| No. | Title | Writer(s) | Length |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | "A Call to Arms" | 0:18 | |
| 2. | "Nantes" | 3:50 | |
| 3. | "A Sunday Smile" | 3:35 | |
| 4. | "Guyamas Sonora" | 3:31 | |
| 5. | "La Banlieue" | 1:57 | |
| 6. | "Cliquot" | 3:51 | |
| 7. | "The Penalty" | 2:22 | |
| 8. | "Forks and Knives (La Fête)" | 3:33 | |
| 9. | "In the Mausoleum" | 3:10 | |
| 10. | "Un Dernier Verre (Pour la Route)" |
| 2:51 |
| 11. | "Cherbourg" | 3:33 | |
| 12. | "St. Apollonia" | 2:58 | |
| 13. | "The Flying Club Cup" | 3:05 | |
| Total length: | 38:35 | ||
Videos
The whole album has been shot by La Blogothèque in Brooklyn. Each track filmed as a Take Away Show, available on the site of the album.
Charts
| Chart (2015) | Peak position |
|---|---|
| Belgian Albums (Ultratop Flanders)[12] | 3 |
| Belgian Albums (Ultratop Wallonia)[13] | 65 |
| Dutch Albums (Album Top 100)[14] | 54 |
| French Albums (SNEP)[15] | 64 |
| Irish Albums (IRMA)[16] | 51 |
| Swiss Albums (Schweizer Hitparade)[17] | 94 |
| UK Albums (OCC)[18] | 69 |
| US Billboard 200[19] | 118 |
Personnel
The following people contributed to The Flying Club Cup:[20]
- Beirut
- Zach Condon - accordion, composer, conch shell, engineer, euphonium, farfisa organ, flugelhorn, french horn, glockenspiel, mandolin, mixing, percussion, piano, trumpet, ukulele, vocals, backup vocals, wurlitzer
- Jon Natchez - clarinet, bass clarinet, flute, mandolin, melodica, baritone saxophone
- Perrin Cloutier - accordion, upright bass, cello, viola, backup vocals
- Jason Poranski - mandolin, mandolin arrangement, backup vocals
- Nick Petree - guitar, percussion, backup vocals
- Kristin Ferebee - violin, backup vocals
- Heather Trost - viola, violin
- Kelly Pratt - euphonium
- Paul Collins - bouzouki
- Additional personnel
- Owen Pallett - celeste, composer, harpsichord, organ, string arrangements, violin, vocals
- Griffin Rodriguez - engineer, mastering, mixing, backup vocals
- Alexandra Klasinski - design, layout design
- Kristianna Smith - design, layout design
- Kendrick Strauch - composer, piano
- Mark Lawson - engineer
- Ryan Condon - story
References
- ^ AllMusic review
- ^ Billboard review
- ^ Filter review
- ^ Pitchfork review
- ^ (November 2007, p.142)
- ^ Rockfeedback review
- ^ Robert Christgau review
- ^ Stylus review
- ^ Virgin Media review
- ^ Pitchfork: Beirut's Condon Talks New LP, Obsession, Exhaustion
- ^ [1]
- ^ "Ultratop.be – Beirut – The Flying Club Cup" (in Dutch). Hung Medien.
- ^ "Ultratop.be – Beirut – The Flying Club Cup" (in French). Hung Medien.
- ^ "Dutchcharts.nl – Beirut – The Flying Club Cup" (in Dutch). Hung Medien.
- ^ "Lescharts.com – Beirut – The Flying Club Cup". Hung Medien.
- ^ "GFK Chart-Track Albums: Week 42, 2007". Chart-Track. IRMA.
- ^ "Swisscharts.com – Beirut – The Flying Club Cup". Hung Medien.
- ^ "Official Albums Chart Top 100". Official Charts Company.
- ^ "Beirut Chart History (Billboard 200)". Billboard.
- ^ The Flying Club Cup - credits. AllMusic. Retrieved 15 May 2015.