Gogol Bordello: We Mean It, Man!
Released 13 February 2026
CD | Vinyl | DL | Streaming
4.0 out of 5.0 stars
Self-proclaimed gypsy punks Gogol Bordello return with their ninth album, a polished amalgam of folk roots and blistering rock. Ukrainian-born frontman Eugene Hütz, still passionate in defence of his beleaguered homeland, delivers a new set of anthems for these troubled times. Robert Plummer gets the message.
Born near Kyiv but now living in Manhattan, Gogol Bordello’s Eugene Hütz has always made a virtue of his Ukrainian and Roma roots. That has never been more evident than on the band’s last album, Solidaritine, released just months after Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. At the time, Hütz declared in interviews that the war would be over soon and that Ukraine would win it.
That optimism was sadly misplaced. Still, there is no lessening of the band’s commitment on this new record, launched in the run-up to the fourth anniversary of the invasion. In fact, this is the most intensely focused album Gogol Bordello have ever made.
All superfluous digressions have been stripped away: this time, they go easy on the raggle-taggle accordion, they’ve dialled down the picturesque folklore. Instead, a series of finely honed juggernaut songs sweep all before them. Big choruses, crunching riffs – when they say they mean it, they sure aren’t messing around.
New production team Nick Launay and Adam Greenspan have helped to shape the transition, giving the band’s sound more discipline and punch. Gogol Bordello have enlisted auteur producers before, with both Rick Rubin and Steve Albini weighing in on previous albums. Here, though, they sound newly invigorated, as if operating on a higher level.
Long-time fans may bemoan the absence of the endearing raggedness that used to be one of their trademarks. However, tough times call for tough music, and this is the sound of a band who have bulked up to fighting weight.
The difference is evident on the opening title track, a thunderous call to arms that evokes the conflict in elliptical but unequivocal terms. “Brothers are played against one another/While sisters continue to bleed,” bellows Hütz. Churning guitars, soaring violin and pounding tribal drums set the heart racing, but cavernous echo and vocoder vocals add a fresh touch.
Programmed beats and white noise introduce Life Is Possible Again, an epic singalong that could easily be a Eurovision smash – in a good way, of course. That’s followed by No Time For Idiots, with glistening guitar and melodica-like phrases accompanying one of Hütz’s lost-in-translation flights of fancy. “You might be Socrates or you might be Confucius/But don’t forget about the moron always lurking in the bushes,” he advises: wise words, mate.
Hater Liquidator changes tempo for an infectious disco stomp, powered by fairground organ and la-la interludes. “War, pandemic, what else do you need?” asks Hütz before serving up another of his strange pseudo-proverbs. “As shallow tide is creepin’ up around us/Only shallow fish now dare to swim,” he observes bewilderingly.
After the breathing space of ballad Boiling Point and post-punk funkathon Ignition comes From Boyarka To Boyaca, a lilting Latin-flavoured number linking Hütz’s birthplace to a similarly named Colombian town. Guest singer Victoria Espinoza, from labelmates Puzzled Panther, chips in with Spanish vocals while Hütz replies in Ukrainian. As the most multilingual and multicultural tune on the album, it demonstrates that the band still have a thirst for experimentation.
It’s steady as she goes for the rest of the album. Strings and synths punctuate the propulsive bass-driven groove of Mystics, then We Did Good With The Good We Did alternates reflective guitar passages with fist-pumping rock-out sections. Crayons is a straight-ahead, no-frills crowd-pleaser with muscular drums, while State Of Shock adds some swing to the mix.
But the last track, Solidarity, is an absolute gem. Bernard Sumner of New Order guests on a synth-pop-flavoured paean to the Ukrainian cause that spells out what was merely implicit on preceding songs. “We are with you in our hearts and in our minds/And we’ll pray for a nation through its darkest times,” runs the lyric.
Rebel rock has often had a credibility problem, with too many sawdust Caesars striking poses they know they will never have to deliver on. Gogol Bordello, however, are not setting out to glorify war: rather, they exemplify the joy that comes after, the freedom that is worth fighting for. These are truly days of evil Presidentes, but if one or two do fully pay their due, this is the music we should be celebrating with.
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You can find Gogol Bordello online here: gogolbordello.com. They’re also on Facebook, Bandcamp, X and Instagram.
All words by Robert Plummer. More writing by Robert can be found at his author’s archive. He is also on X as @robertp926.
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