U'Shmuel B'korei Sh'mo - My Review

MoChassid's latest release entitled "U'Shmuel B'korei Sh'mo" is a compilation CD that features music by Chaim Dovid, Yosef Karduner, Ben Zion Solomon, Aron Razel, Shlomo Katz, Eitan Katz, Avraham Rosenblum, and The Nochi Krohn Band. On the whole, the song selection is excellent and the CD has an overall fairly mellow tempo.

I had never heard of The Nochi Krohn band before and greatly enjoyed both of their tracks on the CD, "Melech Rachaman" and "Tzeitchem" [my favorite]. I also enjoyed the songs from Avraham Rosenblum [my Lil' Tzaddik's jumps around when he hears this one], Chaim Dovid, Shlomo Katz, and Eitan Katz.

Yosef Karduner's song "Ha'aleinu" is a beautiful slow tempo song that really showcases his amazing voice. I only wish that "U'Shmuel B'korei Sh'mo" included some more upbeat Karduner songs.

I felt that the inclusion of a Ben Zion Solomon niggun "Lecha Dodi" seemed a bit out of place and broke up the general flow of the CD. Additionally, although I am a fan of Aron Razel's music, I felt that the two songs that he contributed, "Yom Shabason" and "U'vamida" were not as strong as some of his other recorded material. Perhaps these could have been replaced with some of his other material or perhaps music by C Lanzbom and Noah Solomon.

Don't get me wrong, "U'Shmuel B'korei Sh'mo" is a very good CD. Its quality sets it apart from many recent Jewish music releases. MoChassid has taken more than a few steps in the right direction with this CD and I hope we can expect more compilation releases from him in the future.

Overall Rating = B+