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? :)

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.