First off, I'd like to state that I HATE Neutral Milk Hotel. Secondly, I'd like to note that I find it fairly annoying that Beirut is compared to them so often.
To give you the short story, Beiruit is a 19-year old kid named Zach Condon, who has recorded a record that nicely falls in with Magnetic Fields and Jens Lekman, but backed by an orchestra of eastern european folk instruments.
If you haven't heard of him yet, prepare yourself. Beat everyone to the punch and pick it up from Ba Da Bing! for $10 ppd!