This album certainly isn’t one you’ll hear every day. It’s an album influenced by klezmer, music popularized by Jews in Eastern Europe.

Be prepared for lots of accordion and violin. Also, be prepared for how much you’ll be enjoying it.

The title track, which also opens the album, starts with some clarinets and adds in accordion for a surprisingly powerful  track.

The album is much more diverse than just a bunch of clarinets and accordions, though.

Take “Laughing Jackie the Pimp” for example. The song’s music makes it sound like it should be a child’s nursery rhyme while the lyrics speak of a brutal man, “laughing as he beats the girls/If he got a broken one/There’s always more where that came from.”

“Mayn Rue Platz (My Resting Place)” not only has violin solos, but it also has a verse in Mandarin sung by Yen-Liang Tung and Lan Tung.

“I Kind of Hate Songs With Ambiguous Lyrics” is definitely one of the most pointed songs on the album. Here Berner takes aim at bands who, as the song implies, write ambiguous lyrics. The best line of the song is “There’s a war going on, and the cops are beating people in the streets/But all you gotta say is ‘bleat bleat bleat bleat bleat’?”

“Daloy Polizei” is also quite blunt, in that the title translates to “Fuck the police.” Enough said.

“Rabbi Berner Finally Reveals His True Religious Intentions” is a very interesting song in that it almost provides an answer to how God may be testing individuals. The song itself is largely satirical, but still makes quite a point.

“Oh My Golem” is the most diverse song on the album in that it’s almost electronic in sound, and hell, one could dance to it if they wanted.

It’s overall a very refreshing and solid album with not a song out of place. If you’ve never heard klezmer in action before, now might be a good time to start. Look for Victory Party on March 8th.