Best album so far this year? (Partisans & Parasites - Daniel Kahn)

Member Name: dangaroo

Product:	Partisans & Parasites - Daniel Kahn
Date:	25/05/09 (20 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Great liveliness, excellent lyrics

Disadvantages: None

The dramatical multi-lingual vocals and exceptional song writing by Daniel Kahn is amazing on this album and in one song you can here anything from Tenacious D, to an angry punk through to an old school cabaret singer. I love the song Parasite with its well written lyrics which are actually fairly educational, hilarious and convincingly sung by the insane Kahn. Whilst the starting track is a bit of a mixed bag, this song very much sets the precedent for the rest of the album. A crazy mix of Klezmer, cabaret, radical Yiddish music and punk with hints of other stuff thrown in this is like They Might Be Giants jamming with Bonzo Dog Doodah Band at a mitzvah in a mental institute in the middle of the Negev!

The band tell some hilarious stories and their exceptional use of vocabulary to create imagery is a huge bonus. Borsht Revisited is another favourite track of mine and Six Million Germans is another crazy and powerful as well as historic number. This band have the fun factor of They Might Be Giants, speed of Gogol Bordello or The Pogues but the lyrical nouse of Tom Waits or Firewater.


If I do have one bone to pick, it's that some of the tracks seem to get a bit too chaotic when all the vocals are singing over the top of each other in a manic way, however it does to some extent suit the playing at the times it is used.

01. Yosl Ber / A Patriot
02. Parasites
03. Borsht Revisited
04. Rats
05. Rosen Auf Den Weg Gestreut / Embrace The Fascists
06. Six Million Germans / Nakam
07. A Rothschild In Your House
08. Vampirn
09.Dumai / "Think"
10. Khurbn Katrina
11. The Destruction of New Orleans
12. Mayn Rue Plats / Where I rest

I've also posted this on my website http://www.musicneverdied.com

Summary: Excellent album!