Soon: Six13

I'm again in a long trip but I will start working in Six13's album review soon. Stay tuned!

By the way, I'm posting this line, which can be found in the Music & Lyrics discussion thread:

"A good tune can take you far, and good harmony can take you further, but a song is not great until it is in harmony with its words as well", by C Yehuda.

Hashem Echod's Review

Shloime Dachs is back to the spotlight with Hashem Echod, his fifth album. Gideon Levine’s production is very good and some songs are actually not bad. After Ovinu, his previous album, I thought Dachs was gone. But the album’s theme song Shema Yisroel is outstanding, a great surprise. And the album has 12 songs, an all-time record for Dachs, in addition to the video.

Tomid, composed by Lapidot, is not good enough for an opening song. The low part is actually good but the high part is repetitive. Laufer’s arrangement is too typical, adding very little to the song. I believe Ron Tichon would’ve done a much better job arranging this opening song, perhaps in a techno style. Everything is too predictable, too familiar and too boring. Dachs doesn’t seem to be very good at choosing opening songs – in his last album Ovinu he chose Ein Lonu, a very plain song. The high part of this song reminds me of Dedi’s Tein Li Brocho V’hatzlocho, composed by Reuven Banet. **

Shema Yisroel is very interesting. The opening is outstanding – both the choir and the arrangement are very well made and manage to set the appropriate tone for this emotional song. The sound of the train wagons transports us to the 1940’s and the words – Shema Yisroel – are perfectly fit for this song dedicated to a few holocaust survivors. I never heard anything about Elimelech Blumstein, the composer, but he hit a home run here. Dachs also did a good job singing it. This song should’ve been the first song of the album. *****

The big attraction of Yigdal is Chaim Yisrael, who’s a great soloist. He does an interesting intro and sings the remainder of the song with Dachs. Moshe Laufer does everything right in the arrangement until he switches to rock in 2:00, in the last part of the song. Additionally, Gideon Levine sings the choir in Boruch (i.e. Ashkenazi-style). Those two things took away the Mizrachi feel of this song, in my opinion. **

Torah is a three-part song that starts off well (sounds like Shalsheles Junior to me) but it doesn’t builds up. It’s just another average song, that’s has nothing bad, but nothing good as well. ***

Yitzi Waldner is famous for his slow songs, which include Shwekey’s Mi Adir, Meheiro and many more. Keili is a fast song, but Waldner did a great job here as well. He plays well with the lyrics in the second part of the song (check the lyrics in the album jacket and you will understand what I mean) and the song is not overly long – 4 minutes. It the right style of fast song for Dachs’ voice. ****

Mizmor Shir is a typical Bald song – simple lyrics, simple tune and the song switches from Hebrew to English (and Yiddish). Dachs already has a Mizmor Shir in his curriculum – in the album Rozo de’Shabbos. That one is far far superior than this one. **

Yehuda Ben Teimo’s first part is very catchy and overall is a quite good song. There’s nothing new in the arrangement - it’s just the usual sound we hear too often - so the song gets too repetitive. I didn’t like the ending. ***

Yo Ainstark is the composer of the famous Tov Lehodot and usually composes songs for his Shalheves Boys Choir, but he didn’t meet my expectations for this song. The Dove is another plain English like the ones we have become so used to – not catchy, overly long and very boring. And the choir is also too plain. Frankly, I’m tired of these songs in JM. *

Na Na Na starts exactly like Dedi’s Sameach (click here to listen the comparison). The high part is not geshmack. **

Ranenu starts somewhat like Shwekey’s Ranenu. The high part is interesting and the choir here is much better, but I don’t feel like there’s a connection between the tune and the lyrics. It’s a song without a soul. **

Mi Bon is a great Chupa song, but a bit forgettable. In 5:19 and 5:40 Dachs did a very poor job in the vocals – inexcusable. ***

I loved the first part of Yehei but the high part is almost non-existant. **

-> Shloime Dachs sings the same songs for almost 15 years. This album would have been a hit in the 90’s but, hey, we are in 2007. His music hasn’t improved much over the years, nor his voice or harmonies but I can’t say he is a bad vocalist. Although Dachs doesn’t have the best of voices, he excels when singing the right songs for his voice. I guess that’s why he keeps singing the same thing over and over. But many guys out there are musically ahead of him – Avraham Fried , Ohad, Michoel Pruzansky, Dovid Gabay etc… So today, Dachs is not one of the main players in JM anymore. He’s just one of the good old guys still hanging out there.

Pruzbul Review

Here it is Pruzbul’s review, sorry for taking such a long time to write it. To avoid bias, I haven’t read anyone else’s review.

The production is by Yitzi Bald, who also played a large role in Dovid Gabay's album not long ago. Like in Gabay’s album, where he composed a song called LeGabay, Bald repeats the shtick with Pruzbul, in a reference to Pruzanski. Ok…
I don’t like Bald’s choice of lyrics. In Taseh, Shteig and Pruzbul the lyrics are very simple and somewhat vague. The same happened in Gabay’s LeGabay (“When he does work of the day he is quick”)– vague lyrics. While I welcome his quest for new lyrics, I think either the composers should find lyrics that actually say something (like Yossi Green does) or they should compose the lyrics themselves. “Do Mitzva, get Olam Haba” is not good enough. Anyways..:

In Taseh, the choir is Mo Kiss times 20 (Yossi Green style) but I prefer the "fuller" sound of real choirs. Mo Kiss does a good job responding to Pruzanski but I thought he overdid it a bit. When the song started to get cool with Mo Kiss' choir shtick in 3:25, a guy speaking Yiddish comes in. I don't like it. But it seems to be a trend - Shloime Gertner did the same in the first song of his album Nisim. I felt the arrangement is not smooth throughout the song; the intro sounds like my own arrangements I make in GarageBand, which is not much of a compliment. However, Pruz does a outstanding job, especially when he sings the low part in a higher octave - breathtaking! ***

What didn't work for Bald (the arranger) in Taseh, worked in the next song Shteig. The arrangement builds up and the song keeps getting momentum. The best part is on 2:40, in Mo Kiss' choir. Good song, great arrangement and superb singing by Pruz. Not bad! ****

In You're Watching Me, we can finally hear Pruz alone, alongside with the piano. The arrangement is simple, but very fitting for this song. Pruzanski carries the song very well, and throws in a beautiful falsetto in 2:06 and great harmonies towards the end of the song, starting in 6:23. The song is good, but not a blockbuster. ****

The album theme song is Pruzbul. I must admit I was expecting lyrics a la Yossi Green, that is, something like the whole Pruzbul nusach or a special pshat about the importance of Pruzbul from an obscure Hakdama. That's not the case here - the lyrics are "Help to fix the world. Hillel did it with Pruzbul". Aside from this lyrics issue, the music is energetic and catchy. Pruzanski does a great job improvising at 3:15. ****

It's easy to realize that Chavivin is not composed by Bald. It's a typical Yitzy Waldner song, with a pop feel. Throughout the song Mo Kiss did a great job with the soft background harmonies. At the end of the song, you can hear the cutest baby laugh ever. Very nice song. ****

Brocha is not in the same level as the previous songs, but it's decent. ***

Ashira is not from one Yossi Green's best compositions, but thumbs up for Pruzanski for making this average song sound good. Perhaps is time for Yossi Green to produce Pruzanski's next album - in his first album Pruz did a fantastic job singing Green's "Da" and he did it again here. Come on Yossi! ****

Hu is a creative song composed by Bald. I don't have much else to write about it. ***

Since Shwekey just came out with his Yizkereim (which, by the way, was taken from Coby), I didn't get too excited about this one. But when Pruz sings the English lyrics the song gets more interesting. ***

V'lo is a three-part that doesn't really flies. The song is weird, the arrangement is confusing and the ending is very poor. Even Pruzanski couldn't make this sound at least decent. *

→ Overall, this album’s production wasn’t as good as the first one – Ashrecho, a state-of-the-art album produced by Yochi Briskman and directed by Eli Laufer. Pruzbul is more economical, but it’s not a flick. Pruzanski is one of the best soloists out there and has the skill to make almost any song sound great, with great intensity, harmonies and improvisation skills. MoKiss is a great choir arranger - this is the first time I heard his work. I think everyone in this album tried very hard to produce good music with the resources they had at hand. Bald's songs are simple for the most part, but catchy and well sung. Worth my money.

Update

I'm back from a long trip to Europe and will now be able to spend more time in this blog.

Michoel Pruzanski just released a new album that bears a very unique name - Pruzbul. This follows Dovid Gabay's trend of choosing album titles that sounds like the singer's name, in his case LeGabay.

I REALLY look forward for this album. I am a huge fan of Pruzanski and I think he has been the best voice to come out in the last years, following his excellent debut album Ashrecho. If you don't have Ashrecho, buy it. For some reason it never became very popular, but many of the songs in his first album are all-time classics to me.

Pruz has a very energetic, all-range voice that was very well coached. He's always on tune and tries new shticks in almost every song, keeping his songs always interesting. I have been telling my friends for a long time that I plan to get Pruzanki for my wedding.

I heard MostlyMusic's Promo song of Pruzbul and it sounds great and very energetic. Yitzy Bald seems to be the main composer, but there are songs by Yossi Green and Waldner.

I will post a review asap. I also plan to review Shloime Dachs' album soon. Stay tuned.

Music and Lyrics

Music is one of the most powerful ways of expressing a person’s feelings and ideas, and for centuries it has played a very important role in Jewish life. From the Shtetl’s folk wedding songs to the niggunim of the Hasidim, virtually all Jews share a great passion and admiration for tunes that inspire their lives.

Both the lyrics and the tune are the most important facets of an inspiring song, and they can convey to the listeners joy, excitement, insight or even sadness, depending on the lyrics and tune used by the composer.

Everyone agrees that Shlomo Carlebach had a special skill to choose the appropriate tunes for the lyrics he sang, and the vast majority of his songs seem to be in perfect harmony with the words. That might explain why his songs are still so popular even after his passing.

Today, the biggest trend in JM is borrowing non-Jewish songs and singing them with lyrics from Tehilim, Tefila or whatever. Some singers copy the whole song (see Life-of-Rubin's list here), some composers simply use the beats and style that are typically used by techno or pop singers and so on. I once saw a teshuva from Rav Ovadia Yosef stating that it’s actually a good thing to transform these tunes into Jewish music because by doing that, the singer brings something that was used for the Sitra Achra (“Dark Side”) and elevates its use to Hashem.

But even though it might be ok to bring “alien” music into JM, we must keep in mind that these songs were composed for different lyrics and by definition they have nothing to do with the Tehilim or Tefila lyrics. In other words, many JM songs we are listening today has no “soul” and has little or nothing to do with the lyrics. The tunes might be good and catchy, but it’s hard to enjoy music that has no meaning to it. That’s why I can’t hear The Chevra anymore, for example. They sing techno and pop-style songs but even though the music is modern and the arrangements are good, I feel like there’s nothing to the songs. But the same holds true for many other composers today. For instance, Yossi Green’s thing today seems to be techno songs – like “Gedoilo Shiro” in Ohad2 and “Im Ain Ani Li” in Gertner’s album. I must admit that I like these songs but in the other hand, I feel that there’s no connection between the lyrics and the melody. The same thing happens when I hear Blue Fringe or AKAPella. Not to mention Variations (remember?).

I believe that the singers and composers should focus more in producing original music that is connected to the lyrics. If they keep focusing in finding the most catchy goish tunes and arrangements, we will be flooded with Jewish songs that are nothing more than copycats of non-Jewish music, with no originality or meaning to the songs. That’s why I like Shalsheles so much. And Chaim David, Chaim Yisrael, A. Fried, Abie Rotemberg and even Razel. These guys are busy singing real music, with real lyrics. Kein Irbu.

For the discussion thread, please mention Jewish songs that you think that have nothing to do with its lyrics. I came up with another one: this very very old-school Jewish tune, "ציון הלא תישאלי לשלום אסיריך" a very joyful song from... the Kinos of Tisha Beav.

PS: Although I brought a negative example from two of YG’s compositions, these are exceptions, and I think the vast majority of his music is very real and meaningful.

Baal Haturim on Music

Not being allowed to listen to music until Tisha B'av makes us realize how much "addicted" to music we are and how much we enjoy it.

The Baal Haturim on Parshas Matot comments that the word "LeAnot" appears twice in the Tanach; once in this passage (that speaks of cases in which the wife has vowed and the husband has the power to cancel the vow) and once more in Tehilim "(Lamnatzeach) al Machalat LeAnot", where it refers to a musical instrument. This indicates that if a woman vowed not to listen to musical instruments, her husband can defer her vow, for her vow is considered to be a vow that causes personal affliction to her (The husband may only cancel vows that affect their relationship or a vow that inflicts personal affliction to his wife).

May the days of Eternal Joy come fast and we will all rejoice with Mashiach, dancing with the most beautiful music of all times.

My Deal With Joel

In the YG post thread yesterday:

Joel: "(...) Perhaps you should have a top ten list of your favorite 90's songs. It would encourage dialogue of differing opinions."

YK: "(...) I like your sugestion and I have an idea. Write a list of your all-time top ten favorites and briefly explain why you like each song. I will do the same and I'll post both lists so we can compare. Deal?"

So a deal is a deal, so here it is my list and Joel's list, in the next two posts.

I realize that they are long posts and I apologize for that, but I couldn't figure out a better way of doing this.

Feel free to disagree and criticize the selections - the intent was to expose two (totally different :) points of view.