I never said anyone made the same statement regarding that specific track. however, it is certainly a general consensus via that publication and respectable others that Rubin may have been responsible for emphasizing components of distortion that proved to be a detriment to the presentation of the band’s ferocious energy, which was already apparent enough. as far as track-by-track insight from the reviewer, I have no say in that since I personally didn’t express that opinion regarding “Rebellious Love”.

no problem with you disagreeing with something like that, but I just want to stress that mixing up the Portuguese and Romani languages should have little bearing on your impression of this review as a whole. I do not publish reviews on this site unless I feel the writer has made a full effort in his writing and research, so I can assure you there is nothing suspicious or uninformed apart from that miscue. I have full knowledge that the item reviewed was an official promotional copy, the same quality that is now in record stores. so please, do not allow that isolated mistake to form falsehoods in the review as a whole. it’s only a “musical mistake” if the differentiation between Portuguese/Romani has a strong bearing on the review’s focus and/or aim. that was just a false bit of information, slightly more severe than messing up a birthday, and did not have any dramatic effect on the words subsequently following it.

so, now we can move on and talk about something that is truly subjective, like the effectiveness of production on this album. again though, thanks for bringing that error to my attention. as you said, it is something that needs to be noted and considered, but not over-emphasized to the point of devaluing the entire article.

Sure, it’s there in Californiacation: no doubt.

I’m not looking for anyone to distinguish language. Most likely a simple GOOGLE search would be sufficient research to discover that the song is an old traditional song of Romany tradition.

Again, we’re not talking about native speakers or non-native speakers of languages.
FYG: per my previous, Cuban SON is not a song that typicallty as lyrics.

talking music here, not language.

gadjo, you are correct regarding the linguistic mix-up, but you are making rash assumptions regarding everything else to coincide with your own personalized view of the album. yes, it is sung in Romani, that is an objective fact. your other statements are not though, and often times false. the reviewer has an advanced copy and has worked directly with Sony. it was listened to in high-quality and with attentive care, and the opinions expressed in this article are valid because they are opinion-based. that error is factually incorrect, but it is based on an understandably flawed perception. just ask yourself how many people are able to distinguish between Portuguese and Romani. what makes you think that understandable error makes the entire article faulty? this is especially considering that the album’s language is not even a central component of this review. regardless, I have revised this part of the article and thank you for bringing it to our attention.

he thinks Rubin’s production was a detriment to the album’s sound and Bordello’s amazing energy, which is captured best in live performance. many other reviewers, all with prestige, echoed these sentiments regarding Rubin (Pitchfork posted the identical opinion after this was published, as the few posts above show). you might as well quibble with all the other sites who echo these opinions, which is a large number of them: http://www.metacritic.com/music/artists/gogolbordello/transcontinentalhustle
there are no linguistic experts on staff to check for matters related to translation. writers do the best they can, but with such subtle differences there is little reason to expect consummate foreign-based linguistic accuracy in its entirety when the writer’s aim is to write about music.

any individual who judges others’ opinions on music based on whether or not they can distinguish between Romani and Portuguese really should be cautious when reading music criticism, as I can guarantee that many writers you revere wouldn’t know the first thing about this differentiation. if assigned, they would try their best to make the difference, but this sort of stuff happens when the topic (like differentiating between Portuguese and Romani) contains extremely individualistic components of knowledge, usually requiring the knowledge of native speakers or those who have taken a class in it (i.e. put money forth towards learning it). true, more research should have been applied to correct this before publication, but to make the type of assumptions you made based on that one error is rash.

Anyway – he includes that (mis)information to make his review sound more intelligent and informed. As for the sound system – Any excellent sound system will still show up the horrible outcome that is mp3 file format. As this review was made prior to the release, and includes errors such as the language foul up, I am led to assume he didnt have advance CD copy.

and i can pretty much verify he has a better sound system than you, so such accusations are stupid