Written by Mr Teeth for 7bitarcade:
http://www.7bitarcade.com/music/article/gogol-bordello-pura-vida-conspiracy/
It’s hard to believe it’s been nearly fifteen years since Gogol Bordello came onto the scene with what was then considered a slightly novelty tune in “Start Wearing Purple”, however on the back of a quality song and great debut album – along with the influx of more Eastern European influenced music elsewhere over the years, Gogol Bordello soon became festival favourites and are back with their sixth full length studio release.
The albums opening couple of tracks “We Rise Again” and “Dig Deep Enough” very much carry on from the bands roots, infused with the trademark violins and accordion creating up beat and danceable anthems. Plus if anyone wants to know what is meant by the musical style of Gypsy Punk, then look no further than “Malandrino” which on one hand sounds like it could be an old traditional gypsy song however then changes tempo into what would see many bodies flying around the dance floor.
There are times though when this album seems to have a couple of fillers, songs such as “Amen” and “Heiroglyph” in my opinion could easily been left off – not that there’s anything wrong with them necessarily, just the momentum of the album gets a little lost, after all there’s nothing wrong with having a shorter release if it’s all the same quality as the opening tunes.
This said there’s still “John the Conqueror” towards the back end of the album which redeems the situation with an energetic number recapturing the live feel of the band, whereas in contrast “We Shall Sail” brings proceedings to a close with founding member Eugene Hutz singing a beautiful stripped back acoustic ballad.
There may well be a couple of songs that move away from what made Gogol Bordello special when they first came about but on the whole this has been a great listen, and with the album title deriving from the Spanish phrase for “Pure Life” if this were indeed to be the soundtrack to life, then it’s surely one worth living.
