Up until now, my summer song has been Battles’ “Ice Cream.” That was until I heard my second summer song, Beirut’s “Santa Fe.” I have a question for Beirut’s Zach Condon: Where the hell was this song at the beginning of summer?!
The track starts off with a choppy synth line, over which Condon sings “Your days in one/This day undone/The kind that breaks under/All day at once/For me, for you/I’m just too young/And what of my heart?” The rhythm comes in here, setting off an army of foot tappers and head bobbers on the opposite ends of the speakers. This simple, yet effective combination of vocals, synth and drums drew me in immediately. And that was before the horn section came in. Once the horns appeared, it was as if I could hear what a sunrise sounded like, if only for a few seconds.
In the middle of the song, the synth drops out and is replaced by an effect-laced piano. “And I, and I, and I alone want you to know” is repeated until the song returns to its original form, interspersed with brief brass harmonies until the rhythm takes the song out.
“Santa Fe” is Beirut at its finest. I haven’t been so hooked on one of their songs since “Postcards From Italy.” Regardless of where this song has been most of the summer, it will be blaring out of my headphones for the remainder of it.
