Jobie Reviews Music 147: Choisies de.... (album) by Mongol Shuudan. Requested by F63.

Choisies de… is a 2002 Russian folk punk album by the band Mongol Shuudan. It is 16 tracks long, totaling 1 hour and 4 minutes of music. Its sound is very reminiscent of Mongol Shuudan during their Locomotive-Anarchy days, having many of the elements that made that album great present in its composition.

The folk inspired album uses a wide range of instruments, ranging anywhere from wind instruments like trumpets and trombones to stranger instruments like the kazoo (see their cover of “Mama Anarchy”, which features on the album, to see what I mean when I say “kazoo”). The album even features some “feel good'' tracks, which make for a large amount of musical variation across the album’s 1 hour and 4 minutes of runtime.

It’s also worth pointing out that it seems like the album was recorded live, with audience applause and cheering able to be heard at the beginning (or in one case, the end) of multiple tracks. Thankfully, the audience doesn’t subtract from the experience, remaining mostly silent during the actual performances of the songs.

Each track is composed in a manner which allows for Mongol Shuudan to cover a wide range of folk inspired styles, with the aforementioned arrangement of instruments making for a flavorful album with great instrumentation. The band’s delivery of their lyrics is also great, with no complaints to be made about the vocals featured on this album.

Though the entire album is filled with great tracks, the album is at its best during its first half. It’s in this part of the album that Mongol Shuudan delivers incredible tracks one after the other, making every track in the album’s first half a tough contender for the “favorites” section of this review. No doubt the second half contains lots of great tracks as well, but the first half contains the most in the album’s 1 hour and 4 minute run time.

My favorite tracks from this album are “Черная Шаль”, “Москва”, “Повезло”, “Алковальс”, and “Узбечка Лейла”.

Overall, Choisies de… is a great folk punk album from Mongol Shuudan. The album, which continues their sound from the album Locomotive-Anarchy (and builds upon it), is a flavorful album which contains varied instrumentation in its composition. This makes the album enjoyable and engaging to listen to, and is another example of why Mongol Shuudan are one of the best Russian anarchist bands on the market.

Overall rating:

9.2/10

LINK TO ALBUM:

https://open.spotify.com/album/4yjrsoKKI703F6lmAaATqs