Saturday, December 27, 2008

YK's Picks

Blogger: YK
Blog: YK's Jewish Music Forum

Best Album: 8th Note (Yossi Green)
Best Song: Anovim (8th Note)
Best Debut Singer: Yitzy Spinner
Best Arrangement: Sefor (8th Note)
Worst Song: Hesech Hadas (Avraham Fried)

Full Disclosure:
"I will be really concise, I don't want to take too much of your time.

Best Album - Yossi Green was a living legend but there was something missing in his career - an album like the 8th Note. True, he had put out Shades of Green but we needed to hear something novel, cool and modern from him and he delivered. Gabay is also up there but the 8th Note is more significant, if you look at the big picture.

Best Song - Anovim is the natural choice, since this year was the first time this song came out with a proper arrangement and recording. Singable, great lyrics, great vocals and great arrangement. What else can we ask for?

Best Debut Singer - In my opinion 2008 has provided us with one of the best harvests of new singers of the past 5, 6 years. Not in terms of quantity but in regards to quality. Spinner stands out because he is a pro and boy, we need more real pros in JM. Great composer, arranger and singer, but above all, just a great musician.
However I would like to make a special mention to a singer of a completely different segment of JM - Shuli Rand. He has one skill that is very very scarce in Jewish Music today - lyrics. He is a brilliant lyricist and that's something Spinner doesn't have at all - Spinner gets songs from Chazal and the only English song of his album is running for this year's worst song. True, the trend is still to dig in Chazal for new lyrics and that's what sells but I strongly believe we will eventually shift to more original lyrics, not Chazal verbatim but novel lyrics based on the words of Chazal. In that regard Shuli Rand is ahead of everyone, by far.

Best Arrangement - Sefor, because it's fresh, original and just really cool.

Worst Song - Of course, Avraham Fried had to sing the Mashiach song in the 8th Note. Boring and pointless song, and I would expect much more from one of the alleged top singers in JM - a top singer would steal the show in the 8th Note. Again, a great singer cannot hit the same key every time. Explore new worlds, sing about different things and most importantly, be original.



12 comments:

Joe said...

Wahtever

Point is we had three universal VERY SOLID albums: Lipa, 8th Note and Gabay II, and a whole lot of new good songs, arrangements etc.

A couple of good debuts (Spinner, Mayer, Sruly Werdyger, Rand) and alot of different arrangers (Spinner, Shua Fried, Shai Bachar, Ian Freitor) and sound guys that were real busy

Thats just great. We did have an excellent year in JM!!

Joe said...

And about new lyrics:

Lipa is one guy who made (or collected) song after song after song with his own Yiddish lyrics, songs like Gelt, Kava, Hyb Ohf Deine Hentelech, Poshiter yid - basically all his albums are 75% fresh original lyrics

YK said...

I know Lipa writes his own lyrics and that's great. But I didn't mention him simply because I don't understand his lyrics, so I can't judge if they are good or not.

Joe said...

YK, Im very sorry if im too much - but after the amazing praise you threw at Gabay's last album - I only rad it now- you dont even mention him in your write-up??

YK said...

"I will be really concise, I don't want to take too much of your time"

That's why I didn't mention him.

Gabay is a great album, I like it a lot, but the 8th Note is just more significant and cool.

Gabay's is as good as Avraham Fried's last album, that is, albums like that come out here and there. The 8th Note is rare.

YK

Anonymous said...

Gabay is a great album, I like it a lot, but the 8th Note is just more significant and cool.
I know Lipa writes his own lyrics and that's great.

Anonymous said...

Gabay's is as good as Avraham Fried's last album, that is, albums like that come out here and there. The 8th Note is rare.
A couple of good debuts (Spinner, Mayer, Sruly Werdyger, Rand) and alot of different arrangers (Spinner, Shua Fried, Shai Bachar, Ian Freitor) and sound guys that were real busy

Good Friday sms said...

Great review, altough a bit negative.
and i think the english song IS a blocbuster.

Romantic sms said...

you gave nice views here. thanks for sharing this with us.

Motorcycle Clothing said...

This Blog have Lot of information thanks for share it.

touring jakcet said...

nice views....good music forum...

Anonymous said...

Cool New Jewish Music, Live Concert Links!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fCeL5uDNx2w
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UJnmyahbGdA
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SIdTMSdWasM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xrvqIRzuvHw

Benny Friedman’s Kulanu Nelech Album Review

Benny Friedman’s latest album, Kulanu, is out on Spotify, and as a paying subscriber I enjoyed listening to this album quite a bit, to the e...