Gogol Bordello made waves back in 1999 when they first released Voi-La Intruder, an album that would lay the foundations for their trademark gypsy-punk sound for years to come. In many ways, the Bordello have both revisited and expanded upon the ground established by that album - but never quite deviating from its base ideology of playing “a bit like The Clash having a fight with The Pogues in Eastern Europe”.
To some, this is a problem. We want to hear our favourite bands grow, to take on the ambitious task of changing or refining their sound. Most people, although I wouldn’t include myself in this group, like the progression from Piper at the Gates of Dawn or Music from the film More as compared to later works like DSOTM or The Wall. The argument is that Floyd, over time, came into their own & this growth allowed them to write & record some of the best selling albums of all time.
This argument ignores the albums Robert Plant released in the 80’s, everything the Gang of Four recorded after Solid Gold or the fact that, when Cat Stevens decided to leave the music scene, it was right after the horrid prog release of Numbers, a concept album that had something to do with a faraway galaxy, a palace on the planet Polygor, and its people, the Polygons.
Honestly, some people just can’t reinvent themselves in the way we’d like them to. Sure, they try. And, sure, we strive to encourage them. But, more often than not, the results are more humiliating than respectable. We’ll see if Lily will still be such a classy lady when she is pulling 50 and performing awkward Blondie covers.
On the other end of the spectrum, we have bands that we poke fun at for not really changing. For instance, the fact that Clinic has pretty much re-released the same album five times now or Godspeed You! Black Emperor, whose albums are basically just variations on a theme. Yet, perhaps this isn’t such a bad thing. Godspeed remain one of my all-time favourite bands and Clinic somehow manage to always stay in my Top 20 most listened to bands. And maybe it is for this reason. If the choice is between releasing a shitty new-age “progression” album or a sticking-to-what-we-do-best one, hell, it might even be preferable for most bands to remain the same.
Gogol Bordello find themselves in this position.
Their new album, Super Taranta!, brings absolutely nothing new to the table. At all. They still play with all the energy they can muster, bringing in old world European references wherever they are able. Eugene Hutz still doesn’t really know how to speak English and yells and yodels ridiculous lyrics about religion & politics & sex & gypsies in the same accent he always sings with. And, as a whole, it makes for the same gypsy-punk party atmosphere that we have come to associate with the band. The entire album is expected.
So, turn it up loud, don’t bother paying much attention to the lyrics and dance, motherfucker, dance cuz, in my opinion, this concepts still got kick.
mp3:
Gogol Bordello - Tribal Connections.
Gogol Bordello - My Strange Uncles from Abroad.
(Super Taranta! will be released on July 10th, 2007 by SideOneDummy Records. If yer in the area, you can catch the band live at the Festival d’Ete in Quebec City on July 12th.)
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