Sunday, December 02, 2007

Jewish Music Review: Yitzy Spinner: you and i

I finally went out and picked up a copy of Yitzy Spinner's debut album entitled "you and i" produced by Avi Newmark. I had heard some tracks via Sameach Music and decided to give it a whirl. You can tell that although Yitzy wants his album to be attractive to the mainstream market he doesn't want it to be boring as many tend to be. You can tell he put a lot of effort in bringing some new ideas to the table and he certainly doesn't disappoint. The album starts with a punch from the opening song "Tzur" which is nice attention grabber. Yitzy then transitions into a nice ballad "Acheniu": I was especially impressed with the backup vocals from Mike Boxer and Yitzy on this tune. The next song is a funky disco/hora:Mi Sheshikein with Danny Flam arranging the brass which really makes this song stand out. The next tune is the title song "you and i". I'm usually not a big fan of English songs since the lyrics tend to be childish and the song is usually dull. I thought Yitzy does a decent job of writing a song where the melody and words match well. In this song Yitzy shows the more emotional side of his voice . You and i is probably best described as a contemporary /quasi- R & B tune which certainly is quite different from what you will hear say on a Shwekey album. Yitzy then goes to rock it up with L'maan Achai which can be kind of catchy. If you are looking for something very different the next song will have your ears perking up: Lefonai. Yaron Gershovsky does what he does best backing up this rock n' roll shuffle .This tune is sure to get you up and dancing. Other songs include Peha another ballad, Modeh Ani with it's calypso/ carribean feel (where is my pina colada?) to a spanish hora-Sholom Aleichem and then moves to "neshomah" another contemporary ballad that really shows the depth of Yitzy's voice. The album does not stop at just 10 songs: Oseh Shalom an Arabic Hora would not be complete without the great guitar work of Avi Singolda and last but not least Avraham Yagel a moderate rock tune gives this album a real strong finish. Bottom line: you and i is a real nice album that will certainly make a nice chanukah present and is certainly enjoyable to listen to and can be purchased here.

5 comments:

MeanJBlogsSuck said...

It seems you, rubin and yk all liked this album. So why then did Aryeh loathe it so much? From his review you would think it was the worst album every produced. Not that so many other bloggers all agree it's a good album, will someone stand up to Jewish Music Blog's harsh reviews??

Anonymous said...

JMBlog is not a "review" he has issues and an axe to grind. its obvious.

YK said...

mr. blogmeister

nice review. i also liked Boxer's vocal arrangement very much however I didn't like the english song at all. Soooo long

chodesh tov

YK

AS said...

Glad you enjoyed it. We can always agree to disagree.

Joe said...

I listened to the album twice. Did not get it.

(Just for the record, I should say that I'm pretty seasoned in music. I've heared alot besides Shwekey and MBD.)

Alot of fresh ideas. Some of them blew me away, but the songs were not so good.

I dont know why Yitzy wouldntt get some help from, lets say, Yossi Green on a song or two.