Monday, May 15, 2006

New Jewish Album Release: Yacov Young

Neginah recently had one of thier singers release an album Dovid Gabbay. The album was being pushed hard and a lot of PR was out on this singer. I'm uncertain as to how well it's selling but they really are trying to create as much buzz as possible. I bought the album and thought it was ok but certainly not spectacular. Yitzy Bald wrote and arranged this album but the better songs were not even writen by him. Now another Neginah singer is testing the waters: Yacov Young. This album is about 4-5 years in the making. Yacov's album is entitled "Yogati Motzasi" (by Yossi Green). I spoke to Yacov a while back at a friends wedding and he told me Yitzchok Rosenthal would be writing many of the songs. This album was supposed to be released Chanuka time but I guess if you know anything about album production you know how things never come out on time. the first time I heard him I thought he sounded a bit like Shlomo Simcha but hearing him at my friends wedding he sounded different. His voice has an excellent quality to it but his biggest issue will be his vocal range. Yacov has no problem hitting very high notes, as his vocal range extends way beyond most from what I understand. The lower notes however are an issue and are are not as pronounced as say MBD. Someone pointed out to me that one of the aspects as to how well an album sells, is how singable the songs are. Perhaps if the vocal keys are too high for people to accompany the songs, the album may not be too popular. I'm not sure I agree with that idea but certainly look forward to hearing what Yacov will be putting out. The album is to be released abut a week before Shavous and will be on the Sameach podcast on Lag Baomer for a sneak peek. There was some argument as to who would be producing this album: Shelly Lang or Aron Tietelbaum of Neginah. Yacov it seems settled for Shelly in the end and this will be one of the few solo artist that Shelly has produced to my recollection in quite sometime.

Update: To hear a clip of Yacov's upcoming album click here.

2 comments:

The Town Crier said...

Both Yacov and Dovid are some of the best singers currently out there - they have siginificantly better voices and performances styles than some of the current "big names" who have exhausted their time in the spotlight.

AS said...

Perhaps, although that is a matter of opinion.