Perth

Album: No No No (2015)
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Songfacts®:

  • The instrumentation for this pop banger is upbeat, but the lyrics recount a dark moment in Beirut mastermind Zach Condon's life. "I think I was actually in Sydney when I fell apart," he told DIY magazine. "I was trying to get to Perth and I just couldn't get on the f--king plane. I felt like I was on tour for four years straight. It was a slow burnout. I remember waking up thinking my mind was going one way, my body of going the other. It's hard to describe."
  • The video was directed by writer and filmmaker Clara Aranovich, and filmed between Yosemite and Santa Monica in California. It features dancer Maceo Paisley.

    Speaking about the clip, Aranovich said: "I've long been a fan of Beirut's music. In fact, the very first short film I directed in film school was set to a Beirut song. There's something in the rhythm and sound of 'Perth' that immediately conjures images in my mind of funk-era dance; I knew I wanted to throw back to that period.

    Nature is a somewhat like a church to me – a place of reverence that is deeply democratic in that it belongs to both everyone and no one. These places are as beautiful as they are a neutral canvas, as real as they are surreal."

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