It’s a truth universally acknowledged that when Eugene Hutz of Gogol Bordello is angry, he makes his best music. See; 2022’s ‘Solidaritine’, released the same year as Hutt’s homeland of Ukraine was invaded by Russia, which saw Gogol Bordello wrestling with loss and rage. Four years later, and they’re channelling their exile status into a message of hope and self-discovery. Living well can be the best resistance, and the overwhelming sense of thriving amid adversity that blasts from ‘We Mean It, Man!’ like a punk rock strike force makes this the band’s best album in a decade.
Hutz once sang that on his headphones was Bob Marley and Joe Strummer, and it’s the latter whose spirit drives this record. It’s not the Joe who partied in the Hammersmith Palais though, but the solo artist who led his roving band of Mescaleros through prairies of diverse influences and social commentary. Gogol Bordello have drawn on so, so much from their musical heritage to make this album, passing beyond…
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