There was a moment about halfway through my first listen of Rak Shalom's Midnight Waves where I could feel the question formulating in my brain:

"If a Jewish a cappella group puts out an album where the Jewish material is the weaker half of the release, how do I deal with that?"

Then came Teisha Neshamot.

Finally, a group that has historically leaned on big and loud and persistent block chords has given its work a real chance to breathe. Finally, there are near-constant variation in background textures. Finally, bass and vp are working together to anchor the rhythm section rather than leaving the vp on an island to work its superhuman magic on the groove alone. Finally, we get a killer solo — technically a killer duet in this case — with two voices that blend terrifically and can handle both the pronunciations and the throaty (rather than nasal-y) tone needed to deliver the song. This is the sort of thing I've been hoping to hear from Rak Shalom for a while now.

To be fair, as alluded to above, most of the rest of the English repertoire offered here already shows many of these same signs of improvement to varying degrees. I may not love all the interpretive choices in When I Was Young — but at least, for a change, it is in fact a legitimate interpretation with very specific artistic choices, rather than just a slavish cover. Imitative horns aren't usually my jam, but the group makes it work in White Lines, led by an appealing solo from Noah Broth. The arrangement of Love The Way You Lie / Fall For You suffers a little — as mashup arrangements frequently do when the songs mostly go together, but maybe not perfectly — but "yay" for thematic relevance and a cohesion that has eluded this group in the past when the members have gone the mashup route.

Also inferred from the above, a fair amount of the Hebrew songs don't quite reach the same level of quality. Often with Jewish a cappella, that's a particular problem in covers of more religious music, drawing on short liturgical texts that feature a very basic A-B-A-B structure that repeats ad nauseam. There's only so much one can do with a song that wasn't all that interesting to begin with, even if it's pleasing when you hear it the first time through. And indeed, that's true of the mostly loud and louder Heyma, which also has some Hebrew pronunciation inconsistencies that I find frustrating as a Hebrew speaker (but I suspect many will not care). But that same creative issue is much more disappointing in the more narrative songs written in modern Hebrew that have stories to tell (of varying levels of depth).

Tefillah means well in its message, but it's not especially helped here by being transposed down and including some re-harms that are at best odd (and in a few places seem downright wrong), nor by a lyrical mashup that comes wildly out of left field and feels entirely unnecessary. Ad Machar suffers from the outset by dry (almost aiming for acoustic) miking that exposes some blend and tuning issues that are typically fixed in post; by slightly overbearing vp (the only real misstep by Nadiv Panitch, who otherwise does terrific work throughout); and by a key change that feels wholly unearned. Only Mimcha Ad Elai of the Hebrew selections comes close to matching Teisha Neshamot in its excellence, but it's the clunky, plodding bridge that instead demands something lyrical and softer and more distinctly different than what came before that dinged it down to a "4" for me.

A quick look at the Rak Shalom website suggests that many of those performing the finest work on this release — the aforementioned Nadiv Panitch, the soulfully voiced Yonah Hamermesh, and Noah Broth — have either graduated or are about to shortly. It's wonderful to see a group like Rak Shalom take a sizable step forward in its recording — with credit perhaps also due to a great team of A-list pros in Mordy Weinstein, Jeff Eames, Ted Trembinski, Ed Boyer, and Dave Sperandio — and I can only hope that the institutional knowledge and progress achieved here is passed along to the next generation, so that we get more of this from Rak Shalom in the years to come.

In my experience reviewing Rak Shalom's work, I've found the group's multilingual offerings to contain exciting, surprising, and inspiring material that is clearly well-executed from conception to execution. But on every album, there have been tracks that feel wholly mediocre and without that same innovation, energy, and dynamic charge. Midnight Waves is no different: with some of the most interesting music I've heard from the group to date comes a slew of overly simple tunes that fail to move the needle dynamically, mentally, or emotionally.

The Jekyll-and-Hyde nature of the album starts at the top. When I started listening to When I Was Young, I had to stop and ask: am I listening to Rak Shalom or Off the Beat? The familiar distortion-effect strategy is a hit: the arrangement serves as a canvas, and the studio was able to paint with effective timbres. But it's followed by Tefillah, a track whose general lack of musical nuance is highlighted by the songs that bookend it. White Lines is bouncy and energetic from the first moment of background vocals and is further buoyed by soloist Noah Broth's clear tone quality and stellar rock styling. This moment of excellence, much like at the beginning, is followed by a very straightforward tune in Ad Machar. Dynamic extremes are seldom explored, leading to dissonances appearing exposed and unbalanced in the arrangement, tender moments feeling too loud, and a key change that ultimately feels out of place.

Musically, the group handles itself nicely overall. I appreciate getting lost in the solo lines meshing together to large chord outlines in Love The Way You Lie / Fall For You. I appreciate the journey and drama inherent in Heyma, especially the latter half. The extremes of background voices in Powerful are impossible to miss. On the other hand, tunes like Tefillah, Ad Machar, and Movement contain few key differences between verses and refrains. Structurally, harmonically, dynamically, and emotionally, the group flatlines in these instances, and expression is missing in moments when it is needed the most.

In many ways, Rak Shalom is better than ever before; when the group is dialed in with all elements intact, it is a force to be reckoned with. Consistency in these areas of innovation, dynamics, and tonal and structural contrast is the group's next natural step forward, and that potential is easy to hear in Midnight Waves.

Multi-language albums are always fascinating to analyze. It's so easy to associate emotions with words and lyrics. However, when the listener is unable to understand the language, it falls upon the performer to provide as much context as possible through aspects like energy and musical direction. It's in this regard that Midnight Waves has promising moments, but a lack of overall energy and musical direction causes the group to come up short.

When I Was Young shows the strengths of the group very quickly. The arrangement by Yonah Hamermesh and Ben Fish works really well to establish the peaks and valleys of sound. There are multiple rhythmic textures working simultaneously and differing dynamics to give a sense of impact. However, it feels choppy at times. There are sections like the second chorus or the bridge, which have a subtle yet noticeable style change. The problem is that these shifts are too different from the established sound to maintain the flow, but not drastic enough to demand the attention of the listener. It makes for some moments that I like, but not enough to garner attention for the entire piece.

However, what is more troubling than choppy transitions is a lack of energy. Ad Machar is a solid example of this. If I'm unable to understand the language, I need the energy and emotion of the piece to permeate through the speakers. This piece lingers at a medium dynamic for over two minutes. It's hard to understand the emotion of the song when the group members aren't giving that energy immediately. Taking the time to understand what the song means to the group and where the singers want to have the large impactful moments will clarify how they want to approach such moments. It likely means having multiple dynamics and keeping the energy driving through each of those dynamic levels.

Powerful starts showing what those impacts can actually be. The piece starts with a great driving beat in the lower voices before the soloist keys in. There is a subtle build before the first big impact in the chorus. It's easy to tell that the group likes this song and is working to put the energy into the song. The bridge brings the volume down, but it feels a bit more like rambling at a lower dynamic rather than quiet by design. However, the ending explosion of sound is great. This is the sound I want to hear more of from Rak Shalom, and I hope the singers can keep this sound in future performances and recordings.

When all is said and done, this album is hurt more by what it lacks than what it has. There are no sour notes or bad ideas. However, a lack of energy and direction throughout the pieces lessens the impact and makes the album feel very monochromatic. Finding that energy will go a long way to keep the listener engaged; keeping this energy will take Rak Shalom from good to great.