Pompeii

Layered orchestration comes pretty easily to Zach Condon – just check out the south-of-the-border horns and percussion on Beirut’s March of the Zapotec EP or the French chanson influences of The Flying Club Cup – so it was probably inevitable that the Santa Fe, N.M. native would dial back the bombast on The Rip Tide. Most of the songs begin quietly – a solo accordion on “A Candle’s Fire,” a lone piano on the requiem-like “Goshen” – and even the lush-sounding strings on the title track and the multi-movement “Payne’s Bay” serve more as an emotional counterweight than as a driving force. Add “Santa Fe,” the closest Condon has come to a conventional and catchy pop song, and the deal is done. If you want to travel to a far-flung place, sometimes it’s best just to sit and listen.