Gogol Bordello “Gypsy Punks Underdog World Strike” Album Review

Gogol Bordello
Gypsy Punks Underdog World Strike
Side One Dummy: 2005

After half watching live earth a few weeks ago I came across a strange performance which looked like Madonna fronting some kind of bizarre homeless gypsy band. After looking at a few comments about the clip on Youtube I realized it was a collaboration between Madonna and New York Based band Gogol Bordello. After checking out a few more clips I realized I had to get this album, although its actually two years old Gypsy Punks Underdog World Strike still stands as one of the most bizarre albums I’ve heard in a while. Fronted my lead Singer Eugene Hutz, who looks like a cross between Freddy Mercury and David Bowie (circa Labyrinth); Mix an intense and sometimes comical stew of punk, traditional gypsy music, reggae, and various other musical forms.

This album is all over the place, key changes and random dynamics push songs way over the edge; the best part about this album is that it still remains listen-able. Eugene sings in a sometimes intelligible mix of English and other languages, it didn’t matter so much to me, it was done with such fierce sincerity that it added another element to the music. It was actually liberating to hear a band mix so many musical styles and not come off as pretentious or forced; different musical styles are thrown around at ease. Stand out tracks include, I Would Never Wanna be Young Again, Alcohol, Underdog World Strike, Start Wearing Purple, and Think Locally -Fuck Globally. If your into new sounds and are not strict musical forms its definitely a album to check out.

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