Dual Review - Pruz and Spinner

I borrowed these two albums to review, and do not have the album jackets. Unfortunately, neither artist posted their album jacket on their sites, so my knowledge of who was involved in each production is limited, so please forgive any errors.

Pruz

I recently listened to Michoel Pruzansky's album "Pruz" and Yitzy Spinner's album "You and I", and I decided that it would be interesting to compare the two.

The most distinct feature of Pruz, besides its strange name, is its amazing rhythm section. The funk bass player and drummer are both new to Jewish music, and sound like they've been working together for years. The mixing of the rhythm section is also surprisingly good, which is unusual for a yeshivish album, which tend to use the same studio and mixer. The synergy that results from these two players is palpable throughout the entire album.

There are only two little things about the drummer I didn't like: his ballad playing and his freilach, particularly in the songs "You're with me", "Chavivin", and V'lo", the only freilach tune on this album. Like most non-Jewish not familiar with freilach, this drummer just doesn't get the groove, and frankly makes a mess of it. Other than these small things, the drummer is outstanding.

Outside of the rhythm section, the music, arranged by Yitzy Bald, is energetic, and at times too energetic and over-arranged. Pruzansky was clearly going for an energetic sound, and he accomplished that, but a little too well. Many of the rock and disco songs are set at 10 throughout the entire track, and it's too much of a good thing. I also don't like Bald's use of the horn section, which is not mixed nearly as well as the rhythm section. Bald overuses the horn section frequently where many times a simple arrangement consisting of a tight groove between the bass player and drummer and distortion guitar over it would get the point across much better than over-arranged horns.

I'm also not much of a fan of Bald's piano playing. I don't like the piano sound he uses, but more importantly, he rarely uses dynamics to the point that it sounds like he turned off touch-response. This is particularly significant in the ballads, such as "Ashira" and "Chavivin", where vulnerability is important to the song, but not found in the piano playing. Bald also plays a glockenspiel sound like a piano in "Chavivin", which is appropriate for the intro, but not for the verse of the song. A glockenspiel is not a piano.

Thankfully, Pruz's excellence doesn't stop at an outstanding rhythm section. The songs, particularly the rocks and discos, are catchy, moving, and easy to sing along with. The ballads are also original and emotional. Beyond the songs, the vocals are consistently excellent. The choir, directed by Mo Kiss, is tasteful and not used percussively, like many yeshivish albums insist on doing. Michoel doesn't over-sing, and adds whatever is necessary to each song. In the rocks and discos, the energy is palpable and you can feel that Michoel had a great time recording and singing these songs, and in the the ballads, you can hear that Michoel meant every word, and the emotion is real. Michoel's singing is genuine, and it comes across loud and clear in this album.

Pruz does not sound the same as other yeshivish albums, and this alone makes it worth a listen. The rhythm section is outstanding, the energy consistent, and the vocals real.

You and I

"You and I" stands in stark contrast to "Pruz". Spinner uses the same musicians as every other yeshivish album, has unoriginal songs, over compensates in his singing, and besides some stylistic changes, is an average album at best.

I wasn't satisfied with any of the songs, all composed by Spinner, with the exception of Achienu, which was already released with a better arrangement by 613. None of the songs moved me: I couldn't imagine hearing any of the rocks and discos at a wedding, and the ballads sounded boring and unemotional.

The one thing that makes this album unique is its stylistic fusion of many styles including Caribbean, latin, and jazz, into disco, rock, and ballads. There are many problems with this fusion. First of all, it leads to a sense of discontinuity in the album, as the album has no unique flavor; it is merely a smörgåsbord of many styles (ah, but I like smörgåsbords!!). Second, completely arranging a song completely in a unique style such as Lefonai's blues and Modeh Ani's Carribbean requires the vocalist to have the versatility to deal with these changes and adjust his singing appropriately. To say it mildly, Spinner's vocals do not have this versatility and are one-dimensional. Third, infusing one style in the middle of another, unless done with extreme care and taste, can be completely out of place as in Mi Sheshiken, in which straight ahead jazz is forcibly fused with disco. Some of the songs such as Shalom Aleichem and Neshoma have well placed jazz-like interludes, but the problem is that these arrangements often sound like yeshivish jazz arrangements, similar to Trax to Relax, which are often based on a rudimentary understanding of jazz and don't offer enough jazz flavor to be authentic. For all these reasons, I think that having an album whose main selling point is the fusion of one style into another is a bad idea.

Similar to stylistic fusion, I am not a fan of Spinner's vocals. To me, it sounds like he's trying too hard, which results in distasteful rhythmic and melodic runs, combined with half-hearted singing, such as the "digidee doms" and "hey-heys" in Mi Sheshiken. Spinner sounds like he's concentrating too much on his singing and not enough on connecting with his songs. Spinner doesn't add energy or emotion when it's needed, in contrast to Pruzansky's tasteful singing.

While Pruz is genuine, You and I is saccharin. Where Pruz has an outstanding rhythm section, You and I has stylistic fusion. Two very different albums, and two very different perspectives.