Although you can't really blame Natalie Portman for being paid to erroneously claim that the Shins could change anyone's life (except Zach Braff's), she can't dodge ownership of the playlist she compiled exclusively for iTunes. But as its $7.99 pricetag will go to aid the more than worthy micro-banking effort in the third world, we're going to take the critical microscope off of her choices as compiler and on to the songwriting progress of young Zach Condon, whose new Beirut track provides the mix's primary conversation piece. (Also, Ms. Portman is chronically adorable and I won't say anything bad about her, even under fear of bodily harm.)

"My Night with the Prostitute from Marseille" follows Condon's present tendency to cram a French town into everything he writes, though any nods to the indigenous chanson style are excised for gentle synth gurgles. The stylistic change may have been a mistake, because the backing keys place the setting closer to the twee-est night club in all of Europe than the interior of a seedy brothel. When unmoored from geographically specific musical influences, Condon hasn't yet mastered the art of emotionally specificity. His voice is warm and rich, but it lacks the world-worn complexity and narrative thrust of the Jacques Brel songs he obviously adores. Condon's night with a whore is laughably romanticized, even failing to deliver anything resembling lust or desire. He naively "believed her then," but we can't believe him now. That he attempted to cast Ms. Portman in the role of the noble hooker by offering her a spot on backing vocals only enforces the song's disconnect from unseemly reality. But for the record, it was a pretty good pick-up line.