Nine years after his last original release, iconic singer-composer-songwriter Boaz Sharabi recently released Linshom, his ninth solo album to date.
By VIVA SARAH PRESSboaz sharabi disk 88 298(photo credit: )Boaz Sharabi
Linshom (Breathe)
(Hed Arzi)
Nine years after his last original release, iconic singer-composer-songwriter Boaz Sharabi recently released Linshom, his ninth solo album to date. Linshom is Sharabi's first album without Ehud Manor input.
Instead, Amit Zach wrote lyrics for the songs to which he and Sharabi composed the music. The first track on the album, "Im At Adayin Ohevet Oti" (If you still love me), became an instant hit upon release and can be heard on radio rotations throughout the country. The veteran Yeminite singer proves he can still command a presence with his vocal range. Sharabi and Zach worked on the album for two years. They produced some 40 songs together, and selected 10 for the album. The songs have a refreshing production sound, thanks to Zach. Amit Zach is the son of Shlomo Zach, a music producer with whom Sharabi worked in the past. The younger Zach has added elements of rock and chansons a la Jacques Brel. Sharabi's title song is packed with emotion. On the whole, his songs are touching - sometimes cheerful and other times heartrending. Other standout tracks include "Meteor" and the tender "Lamrot". Songs from this new album may very well become part of the national heritage, just like Sharabi's previous hits. Sharabi has said that he will tour domestically and in Europe and North America to promote his new songs. Fans of this expressive singer are sure to delight in his new CD.
Pop Up
Holekhet Ad Hasof
(Going Till the End)
(NMC)
If cheesy dance pop is your passion, then the new duo Pop Up are sure to please. Singers Liraz Davush and Manor Shabat (the daughter of singer Shlomi Shabat) offer up 10 tracks on their debut album. Most of the songs have annoying catch phrases and tunes that bore through the brain. Pop Up's handlers - Rimon Productions and Tzolelet Productions - believed that the local bubble gum pop scene could host another made-for-commercial-success group and thus held auditions for the two spots in Pop Up. Speaking to the Hebrew media, Davush, who has six years of vocal and theater training, said she and Shabat are not another brand name product, but rather a means to helping people have fun. With Roni Superstar, Daniel Zilberstein and the Game Boys already taking up much of the dance-pop teeny bopper market, Pop Up maintains in its press material that "there's room for everybody."
Pop Up opens the album with "Louie", an irritating dance-floor track with elementary rhyming lyrics that tell of a girl who does not want to hear anymore lies from her boyfriend.
"Keta Romanti" was the second single off the album, and it too tells of a young woman who is sick of her boyfriend. Here, too, a simple catch-phrase scheme is in place with texts that include street jargon ("Ciao, ciao, bye", etc).
As is popular with these kinds of albums, a little bit of everything is offered so as to attract as big an audience as possible.
The title track, "Holekhet Ad Hasof", is a fusion of pop and poor hip hop/rap. The album also includes three remixes of the tracks "Louie," "Keta Romanti", and "Halayla Harishon" for those still restless to hear more. While Davush and Shabat can sing, this album lacks any artistic worth and comes across as something made wholly for commercial triumph.
