AKA Pela 5 Review

A.K.A. pella 5. Review-Dave Sharpner Anyone who's been following the Jewish music scene over the last few years, will no doubt be familiar with the group called A.K.A.pela. This talented group broke onto the music scene a few years back with their smashing debut album Premium Blend. I remember hearing it for the first time. And I was like “WOW! These guys are really good!" They were at that point, combining secular intros with popular Jewish songs. And they were doing it well. Then along came Volume 2. This raised the bar a bit higher as they improved even more on their mixing. The next year was followed by ADAPTION which really started getting interesting. They were now mixing and weaving secular intros with Jewish intros, harmonies and instrument sounds so well that they had at this point already become one of the most anticipated CDs to be released from the entire year! And finally came along PLATINUM which basically blew away any previous notions of what a AKAPELLA album could be like! At this point, it had already become official. AKApella was now king of AKAPELLA! Their groundbreaking and original lyric adaptations, intros, outros, harmonies, and realistic instrument sounds simply had to be heard to be believed! I fondly remember listening to PLATINUM last year, and thinking to myself, there is simply no way in the world they would ever be able to top this. Well, top it they did! I have no idea how. But one thing I could say is this. The combination of professional sounding good music and hilarious shtick is something I have never heard before in my life on any album. Period. Okay, Now on to the songs. 1. KULAM AHUVIM TELEPHONE. The song starts off with a dial tone and automated voice telling us the number can not be reached. And I must say, I was caught a bit off guard. I knew there would be a lot of shtick in store. But I wasn’t expecting it right at the beginning. Once again very original! They then start off with Gaga's telephone intro to the words of Kulam Ahuvim. At One minute in, Avi Stewart comes on giving us a nice rendition of MBD's original low part. I've never heard his voice before. I would describe it in three words. Sweet and Crystal Clear.(Sort of how I like my chicken soup)Then we have C.D.Eichler, Shmuel Braun, and Sholom Engel doing the high part. One thing I just want to add at this point. I found the melodies and the harmonies on this song in particular blend so well together, that its hard to even notice where they start and stop! Its just One long beautiful seamless harmony! I've always loved the original Kulam Ahuvim. But I'll admit, I found this version much more exciting! In fact the Gaga song and the MBD song blend so well together, that if I didn’t know better, I'd be convinced their actually One song! 2. TGIF MEDLEY 2. They start off with the usual (yawn inducing)Akapella “DumDums”. And then suddenly they come on with the Flo-Rida Good Feeling intro. "On Shabbos,I get a good feeling!(YEEEEAAH!!)That I Neva Neva Neva had before!!(OH NOOO!!)” Then Pit bull(A.k.a.Yaakov Eidelman) comes on and he does the rap part about Shabbos! And I must say Yaakov really nails it! If Pitbull ever calls in sick One day, now he can always call on Yaakov! Special mention also by the way goes to Zevi Daniel, for the funky and inspirational lyrics! At 1:20 they “Find Sholom Aleichem in a heartless place”(Originally Rhianna)They then go through the entire Shalom Aleichem. Then at 1:50 they do “Lchah Dodi on the floor.”(The sefardim I think, actually do it on the floor. On a mat.)We then get some more rap, with Chris Brown’s “International Ashes Chayil”(I think that would help the shidduch crisis btw, if we had more international Ashes Chayils, instead of just marrying people from our hometowns.)Never thought I’d see a Chris Brown tune with King Solomon doing the lyrics! But here it is! I think this just may be the very first King Solomon, Chris Brown collaboration! 3. Moves like Nili Mili (Say what?!) Okay guys. If you’ve never heard Yitzy(Spinner) before, than you must listen to this! Yitzy, who btw, also was a major Miami soloist a few years back, really shines on this song! It starts off with the whistle of the original “Jagger” tune. And then Yitzy comes on with MBDs Im Ain Ani Li off Kulam Ahuvim. Surprisingly enough, this song actually goes on at this point for about a minute straight with just beautiful singing and no shtick! Then Yitzy does a nice spin (Pun intended) on the song and does it in English to the Jagger tune. And then at 2:52 WOW! Yitzy nails that high part, as his voice soars to a really scary height! And finally rounds it off with" And it goes like that!" Awesome Job Yitzi!! Next up is... 4. Gertners Hashomayim-7th Heaven. (No he doesn’t really have a song called that, But if you shut you're eyes tight, while listenening to Hashamayim, you’ll feel like your actually floating on a cloud somewhere in 7th heaven!)Just a word by the way, on the original song. I am a huge Gertner fan. And when I first heard the song on Say Asay, I was literally blown away! It is my favorite song on the album! They start off with the original Gertner song. And I just love how they do the high part on the second Yihaaaaaalilucha! Exactly like Gertner does it!! 10 points for that! Then they do Shwekey’s Mimkomcha from Ad Bli Dai .Beautiful job. But still not like Shwekey's original. Btw this is the first of the 2 slow songs on the album. (Actually, its 4 songs, if you break up the songs in both medleys) And its really beautifully done. If you're a “pure” akapella person, than this is just the song is for you. It's the only song with no fake music or shtick at all. 5.Tick Tock. It's back to the “DumDums” once again! This time its Shea Rubenstein’s Tick Tock. WOW!! Really Really great drum work btw!!(Ok. sorry. I know. I should really call it mouth work. But that would sound more like something that happens at the dentist) Anyways, They start off with the “Smashing” (There really is smashing btw, later in the song) low part and quickly move on to Kesha's revised version of Tick Tock. Love the part “Tonight we're gonna shteig til we see the sunlight!" And then back again to Shea’s Tick Tock. (This reminds me btw Hayom Kotzer, so I really got to finish this review already, and get back to my day job!)And then at 3:25 we get another surprise! It's Katy Perry’s California! And then back again to Shea’s Tick Tock. This song is just plain “CRAZY” with a Capital “C”!! Simply no other way to describe it! 6. MOSHIACH-MOSHIACH.This song starts off with Yitzy saying something in fluent Spanish. And to be perfectly honest, I really have no clue what he said. But I will definitely ask One of my Mexican Coworkers later what it means. So, We start off with Benny Friedman’s Moshiach. What could I say about this song that hasn’t been already said? Its just really really good! And these guys actually do Benny justice! Trust me, its no easy feat. But, they do it! Then they do Miami’s Moshiach which is also a great song. And finally at 3:23 we get Englaise’s Bailamos and Gaga’s Alanjenro. (I think Gaga’s on this cd btw more than cd Eichler himself)! 7.NO LYRICS. Starts off