Beirut’s "Prenzlauerberg" And The Mystery of Words

There’s always that song that stubbornly gets stuck in your head for a while, and you keep humming the one part you remember over and over to the point that annoys your friends. Right now, that song for me is "Prenzlauerberg" by the soul serenading Beirut. This song in particular, from the extraordinary album Gulag Orkestar, makes me cry in my pants. The stranger part than crying in my pants is that I don’t even know what singer Zach Condon is saying.

Sometimes I come across an artist who either sings in a foreign language, or, in the case of Condon, sings with such a slurred, un-emphatic vocal pattern, that I don’t really understand the lyrics. But I’ve come to realize over the years that the beauty of music is not just told through lyrics alone. Take Explosions In The Sky, for example, where the song title lets you create your own story from a symphonic rise and fall of melodies. "Prenzlauerberg" is the latest discovery of this sort. The words are mostly unintelligible; yet there is a deep emotional connection felt from the music. You can’t help but be spirited away on the notes of this Balkan inspired waltz and have your imagination take over. The imagination is like a fresh canvas, and songs like "Prenzlauerberg" are a brush and palette of musical paints that create an intimate, Technicolor work of art to each mind.

“Well just google the lyrics then, stupid,” said my mom. I tried, damn it. I even came across a blog centered on the fact that no one could find these allusive lyrics even after hours of searching or people’s lame interpretations of what the lyrics might be. Nope. Nothing but dead ends, folks. But I decided that I didn’t care. The song bleeds drowning sorrow. The hint of catching a word every now and then like cry, wait, advice… well at least I know I’m on the right track then. The droning orchestral arrangement, the up-beat crashing of cymbals, the swirling tone of haunting harmonies… "Prenzlauerberg" has such an epic resonance that I can only wonder at how amazing it would be to hear it performed live. All I imagine is a crowd of people just breaking down and weeping simply because the music made them.

Now, I am so in love with the mystery of the song that I almost don’t want to know what the real lyrics are. I implore you SubEx followers to listen to this song if you haven’t yet heard it. And for those of you that have, listen to it again, because yeah… it’s sexy good. And if anyone does happen to know the real lyrics, I guess let me know, and maybe I’ll drunk-google it one night when I’m all alone and vulnerable.

MP3: Beirut - Prenzlauerberg

-Cory Coleman [c]