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A Study of Losses
2025 studio album by Beirut From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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A Study of Losses is the seventh studio album by American folk band Beirut, released on April 18, 2025, by Pompeii Records.[3][4] Featuring eighteen songs including two singles, "Caspian Tiger" and "Guericke's Unicorn", the album received positive critical reception from multiple publications, including Uncut Magazine.
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Background
Recorded in Berlin, Germany and Stokmarknes, Norway, for Swedish circus Kompani Giraff,[3] A Study of Losses is based on a book titled Verzeichnis Einiger Verluste by German writer Judith Schalansky.[5]
Stylistically noted as encompassing "wide-ranging chamber folk", the album consists of eighteen songs including seven instrumentals ranging between two and four minutes each, excluding "Guericke's Unicorn", which surpasses four minutes.[6] It succeeds the band's 2023 album, Hadsel.[7][8]
Beirut released the album's first single, "Caspian Tiger", on November 14, 2024.[3][9] The second single, "Guericke's Unicorn", was released on February 13, 2025, alongside a music video.[2]
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Reception
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A Study of Losses received positive reviews from critics. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the album received an average score of 79 based on eight reviews, indicating "generally favorable reviews".[14]
The Line of Best Fit remarked, "A Study of Losses finds Condon writing about disappearance, preservation and the impermanence of everything known to us – extinct animal species, lost architectural and literary treasures, the process of aging and other abstract concepts."[8] Hot Press rated the album eight out of ten and stated, "The synth-based 'Ghost Train' and 'Guericke's Unicorn', while impressive, sit a little uneasily alongside the album's more acoustic core. But overall, A Study of Losses is wilfully and wonderfully odd."[11]
AllMusic assigned it a rating of four stars and described it as "appropriately melancholy in nature" and "inspired by the tale of a man obsessed with archiving humankind's lost thoughts and creations".[6] Pitchfork gave it a rating of 7.4 out of ten, and referred to it as "an example of the peculiar magic that can happen under seemingly absurd circumstances."[12] The Times commented, "Zach Condon has created a tender, sombre work which glides by with ease."[15]
Uncut noted it as "a further example of his fluency in the ancient, internationally shared languages of wonder and imagining," rating the album eight out of ten,[13] while Mojo referred to it as "what might be his most beautiful record to date, particularly the instrumental numbers".[16]
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Track listing
All tracks are written by Zach Condon.
Personnel
Credits adapted from the album's liner notes.[1]
Beirut
- Zach Condon – vocals, recording, all instruments (except where noted)
- Nick Petree – drums (tracks 10, 15)
Additional contributors
- Francesco Donadello – mixing, mastering
- John Valesio – strings recording
- Clarice Jensen – string arrangements, cello (tracks 3, 5, 7, 9–11, 14, 15)
- Griffin Rodriguez – upright bass (tracks 3, 14)
- Laura Lutzke – violin (tracks 3, 5, 7, 9–11, 14, 15)
- Ben Russell – violin (tracks 3, 5, 7, 9–11, 14, 15)
- Kyle Miller – viola (tracks 3, 5, 7, 9–11, 14, 15)
- Linda Gaißer – artwork, photography, design
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References
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