A Few Words on the 8th Note

I just checked out 8th note's official website and it's possible to get a feel of what this project is all about. I will not write a review of it but I will however point out some of my impressions.

Firstly, this album has been cooking for a while and that's one of the reasons why Anovim, originally featured in Hasc years ago, was not released until now - YG knew it was a hit song and he wanted to record it himself. YG's previous album Shades of Green wasn't a hit so I guess he veered to different direction in this album - new songs, guest singers and modern arrangements. Good thinking.

The highlights in the 8th note are the creative lyrics and the exquisite arrangements. Layehudim, the first song, is a great example and YG plays with Chazal's words mixing in quotes from another passage ("Ein Lonu Oiro Elo Torah", which is probably a quoted from the Medrash on the Tehillim - "L'David Oiri V'ishi"). Very few mainstream composers venture to modify the Chazal's original quotes and that's one of the reasons why most of them are running out of original lyrics. All the songs in this album have unique lyrics that generally fit in the tunes, which is remarkable and quite unusual these days.

Since I fail to get the connection between YG and Chaim Israel, I was surprised to see they have a song together. As far as I know, Chaim Israel never sang a YG song in his albums and sings for a different public. But I'm happy to hear they are working together as Chaim David has quickly become one of the hottest singers today.

There are other surprises - someone called Moti sings with YG in Al Todin. Who's Moti? And Mo Kiss, who made the arrangements in Pruzansky's Pruzbul, also sings a song. I never heard Mo Kiss singing a solo, another surprise. And AKAPella, yes AKAPella, was zoche to sing the album's title song 8th Note. Why AKAPella?

Which leads to my question - how come YG didn't manage to invite Shwekey or Kol Achai (they have a quite strong fan base and YG has composed for them back in the day) or Pruzanski or Spinner(!) to sing in the 8th Note. I think they would lift the songs to a higher level, as they are more experienced than Moti and Mo Kiss.

And of course, Avremel Fried sings a Moshiach song. I know Fried has a special thing for songs of Golus and Moshiach but that's becoming a cliché - every single time he sings a song we already know what's coming... A change is good for life and even better for singers!

All in all, I'm really excited to hear this album in its entirety, and I hope to post a review shortly after the album is out for sale here in Israel.

UPDATE: The album will be out in 10-15 days, just in time for Purim (very fitting, as the first song is Layehudim). What's pretty cool is that there is a 40 page digital booklet featuring a note from YG to every guest singer and what was the inspiration for each and every song. I think this will be the first mainstream JM album with a digital booklet (Matisyahu had one in Youth..) Speaking of Matisyahu, YG wrote the reggae song for him but Moti and Shalom had to sub Matis as he is in contract with Sony. It's a pitty, it would be wild to see Matisyahu singing in a mainstream JM album. Maybe Sony would then hire YG? :)

HASC 20 - Review

Here are my thoughts on Hasc's 20 album. It's much more difficult to review a concert than to write about a regular album - HASC is a live concert and, as such, there are always mistakes and tuning issues here and there, so I can't be very critical. But I do have some things to say.

This concert starts with a Dveykus-style instrumental overture. I think Dveykus always has an overture so people can play it in dinners and other occasions when you need something in the background, but if I would be in a concert I would be bored to hear this intro. But that's just me, I'm sure some of you liked it.

Shalsheles Junior was without any doubt the sensation in HASC 20. Unlike MBC or YBC, Shalsheles Junior is a group of just four kids, like the original Shalsheles. That's much more appealing for a concert, because you can see who's singing and who's doing harmony - I like that. In the HASC 18 there was YBC and although they did well, I was much more impressed with the musical talent of these four kids - they sing, they do great harmonies and they even play instruments. It's extremely hard to sing Modeh Ani live - the harmonies are complex and there are three parts to this song - but they nailed it. I still remember saying to a friend I wasn't planning to buy SJ, because I was tired of kids choirs. But I can't get tired of SJ. They do better harmonies than many leading JM singers out there - listen to 4:16 and you will surely agree. Hisoreri is a good song but it's not very energetic, so it gets stale towards the end.

Vezakeini was easily the hit of the year to me. Boruch Levine usually composes remarkable slow songs to Yehuda! (i.e. Haleluka) and Dveykus (i.e. Yehi Shalom), but this time he did everything by himself. He no-doubt deserved to be in this concert.

After that we have the "wild-card" - Dedi, which made me happy and sad at the same time. I love Dedi's energy and stage performance, but to hear him in this HASC makes me remember the good old times when he was THE man in JM. In this concert I see a Dedi that was left behind in time and that is fading away - that makes me sad. Without any hits in the past many years, Dedi had no choice but to sing oldies and Carlebach's Neshomole Niggun. I really hope he comes out with something new soon, he's has got the talent (perhaps partnering with Yossi Green again at last?).

Gabay and specially "Lipa's Diet Song" further took away the concerts' energetic start.

But then came Ohad, the sensation. I don't know why he sang Shalom - one of his weakest songs - but he proved to be a master of the languages in the International Medley, singing even Arabic.

The best part of this night was surely the Fried/ Helfgot duet. That was probably A. Fried's biggest dream - we all know he has a thing for Chazzanut. And Helfgot is not a typical Chazzan, he's more "pop". This combination was perfect, and there are some unforgettable moments of the two, like Helfgot’s “messianic” V’hu Rachum and Fried truly magnificent falsetto in 5:48 (you can’t miss this one). It was comic to hear Fried melodically ask, “Who will sponsor (the seudas hamashiach)? I think it will be J & I” and after that Helfgot sings, “And I also sing like thaaat”. Ha!

I think Sameach arranged a great line-up for this concert, probably the best of the past five years or so. In my opinion, this album is better than HASC 18 and United We Stand, two other HASC albums I own.

Well done!