His fourth and new album “Wild East” was landed by rapper Tuna by surprise last Friday, without any prior preparation. It’s sometimes fun to get a piece without an aggressive campaign, but in the case of Itai Zevulun – it seems that life, the Corona crisis and his solid views on the subject, do the preparatory work and promotion for the album better than any publicity campaign.
It’s hard not to refer to “Wild East” as a Corona album. Alongside a clear theme of sobriety from the world of entertainment and glamor of Tel Aviv, which exists on the album throughout most of the songs (especially the excellent “One for Grandma” and the duet with Peer Tessie “Karaoke”); And alongside the two-dropping dose you’d expect from an album by a musician who upgraded the concept to art in his breakthrough single – the corona issue, or rather the corona restrictions, is reflected in quite a few excerpts.
Anyone who follows Zevulun on social media knows that he has quite a bit to say on the subject. He opposes the position that requires citizens to be vaccinated, arguing that it is a denial of civil rights. This is a position that many in Israel find very difficult to accept, which is perceived by Tuna as mouth-clogging. His rage and anger about it he directs to what can be defined as his most belligerent and angry album.
If you’re looking for a comfort album in the form of “it’s going to work too”, this is not the case. In “The Good, the Bad and Your Sister,” his successful collaboration with Shalom Hanoch, he fires arrows of criticism at the conduct of the world and of the country in particular since the first closures.
“Here’s a waitress, Yaffa said ‘this is a severe epidemic’ and hop! You’re stuck in a lens there,” he sings in “Knows how to spin” and adds lines like “mix me with two sugars, until I’m almost convinced that coercion is familiar.”
The album’s excellent theme song has already been explicitly addressed. “My neighbors think it’s me against them, and what will I say? That it’s perfectly healthy,” he sings. “Journalists, you fell asleep. Do not even wonder or ask where it is. Do not show all the pieces of the puzzle.”
What else is on the album? An endearing connection with Oshik Levy and Teddy Ngusa in “The Return of Mordechai”, oriental hospitality by Dudu Tessa, and classic and fun self-flying hip hop in “Shimi Tavori”. But these do not change the fact that most of all it is a protest album.
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