Pitchfork Album Review – Eli Escobar “The Beach Album”

The New York nightlife veteran’s new album chronicles pandemic survival in the city and the difficult joy that’s followed.

20 Sep 2023

Escobar brings this sociological awareness and cultural fluency to The Beach, the latest and best in a series of sample-heavy mixtapes he produced during a creative burst early in the pandemic. 2020’s There Are Ghosts Everywhere in New York City grafted soul music onto community monologues and throwback interviews with neighborhood residents, while 2021’s Lullabies for a Sleeping City was a downtempo beat-tape on the theme of quiet urbanity and resilience.

When was the last time New York dance music was “hot”? Some would probably argue the answer lies in the culture’s initial Brooklynification in the early 2000s, as chronicled on the margins of Lizzie Goodman’s Meet in the Bathroom. Older heads might cite the decade leading up to 9/11 when local rhythm undergrounds, hip-hop and house, became world conquerors. Historically minded utopians often argue the city is always popping, a kernel of truth held onto most tightly by romantic transplants.