The Record of the Year for my Grammy's goes to...

Amy Winehouse seems like a good artist for the Grammy Academy. She is young, has a great look, beautiful "classic" voice, made an old sound releveant to make a truely independent sound. To compound this, her problems in her personal life have fueled records sales. Hell, just in the UK alone she has gone triple platinum. We own her album and I got it for these same reasons. I listened to a few times and it now sits alone, in binder filled with other cds, that didn't stick...

My choice would be a perfect artist for the Grammy Awards. He is young (23), has a great look, a great classic voice (also), and made an old european sound new. When the academy was probably voting in December, they had only sold 33k records. Like the slow records sales, Zach Condon also started from nothing. A high school and college drop out who escaped American culture to backpack europe. There he emersed himeself in Balkan folk and orchestra sound. By the time he had recorded his first album acclaimed, he had already recorded hundreds of songs. "Gulag Orkestar" was recorded in his parent's home and was the first album to get any attention. This would be the first release as Beirut. Beruit second album, "The Flying Club Cup" should win record of the year. It sticks, it continues to grow, and the melody won't leave me alone. The music, the composition, the orchestra is unlike anything in popular music today. Beruit plays with a full ensamble band - strings, horns, guitar, bass, percussion, and don't forget Zach's the instrument of choice the ukulele (was unable to play guitar due to a wrist injury that prevented him from reaching around the neck of a guitar) - which enables them to play anywhere at anytime.

If this grabs your attention:




Continue here for the rest of the album; shot live all over new york to promote "The Flying Club Cup"

If they can produce a sound so rich live, just imagine the sound they produce in a studio. That is truely what you will find with "The Flying Club Cup", the fussion of passion, history, and culture.