Music Review // Lemon Bucket Orkestra "Cuckoo"

When listening to the Lemon Bucket Orkestra for the first time, your mind might take you to the comparison that this sounds like Gogel Bordello.   And while LBO has this certain style of music fused with punk, they aren't entirely the same as Gogol Bordello and simply passing them off as being the same is somewhat inaccurate and lazy.   There is a lot going on within this music and there are other bands out there along the same lines as Gogol Bordello without being Gogol Bordello (The Decker Bandits come to mind right away)

"Cuckoo" begins with a tuba and then multiple people singing comes in.   This album is full of singing, for sure, but it also has a lot of music.  "Gadjo Dilo", for example, is a song that has this big build at one point and this almost screaming comes out in the vocal form, but in a large part that song is instrumental, music over lyrics.    There's also this really fun breakdown in "Mik Mik" which makes me think of the circus.  As much fun as the singers seem to be having singing, this is just that album based on music alone that you need to hear because what Lemon Bucket Orkestra is creating is so special.

As we get into the song "Khaiterma", you can hear a flurry of strings followed by horns and then the two just come together as well.   What Lemon Bucket Orkestra is doing reminds me a lot of how Streetlight Manifesto has that sound that's kind of ska but not really ska.   LBO just seems to be in that genre near punk, close to it and people might not know what else to call it because that genre hasn't been invented yet, but I'll be damned if there is any other artist out there right now doing what this band is doing.

While "Petrunino" is a bit medieval "Zajdi Zajdi" has more of an enchanting sound to it.   By the end of "Cuckoo" you can feel as if you're drawn into this magical sound which has various levels of intensity.   The one thing that remains throughout this entire album though is just how much this sounds like a party.   There are serious artistic merits here, undoubtedly, but overall this just feels like a group of friends getting together, making music and just really having fun while doing it.   The way that it comes through that they seem to enjoy it so much should help whoever is listening to enjoy it just the same.