Idan Raichel Project's 1st album was first released in 2002, with an eponymous album-title.
This album contains 11 songs (12 tracks), mostly in Hebrew, but not all.
The back-cover indicates their titles ; 10 of these contain Hebrew. I say that, because not all are sang 100% only in Hebrew.
Track 1 for instance is a mix.
It's majority is in an Ethiopian language called Ge'ez, the rest in Hebrew. They are prayers for the New Year, sang by rabbis, and recorded without warning by Idan.
I don't personally like the melodies nor vocals. They are good for what they are, if you like listening to prayers.
Tracks 2 & 12 are the same song, Boee, which means "come with me".
Track 2 is full version and 12 is radio version for it. This song mixes Hebrew and Amharic ; But there are differences between these versions. Track 2 is mostly in Amharic. The first vocals in Hebrew start about 2:02 into the song, whilst track 12 (radio version) starts with it immediately, but switches to Amharic after 0:32 and switches back and forth several times before the end of the song.
After a 2:00 silence, track 12 contains a 0:59 long hidden track, that isn't written about anywhere ; it's instrumental, sounding a bit like a bee is playing a violin (this is the best image I have of it).
Tracks 3, 5, 7, 8, 10 are in Hebrew.
Track 3 may be short, but it has a sweet slow melody, and vocalized by Din Din Aviv, who also has a solo career.
Among other things, the narrator asks her significant other, If he left her, who'll be there to console and calm me down like only you know how to?
The melodies of track 5, Thou Art Beautiful are folk rhythms, vocals and wailing ; It addresses an imagined spouse, with her beauty and how it impacts the narrator.
Track 7 seems mostly piano in the background, and the vocalist' singing, reminiscing on the simple, few and quiet words that she and her significant other used to speak together. She asks him to hug her because the days are tough and she's crumbling under the weight on her shoulders.
After a short intro (I cannot tell in which language), Track 8 starts with the mellow song sad roses. It describes a person going to the mountains, to wait for a lover, and where there are sad roses, and the lover still hasn't arrived.
Moving on to 10, the last Hebrew song, continues the narrative of a person, this time a woman, waiting for her lover. Every day, she puts a flower on her windowsill, so it wouldn't be alone, whilst she awaits. Every night, if she doesn't fall asleep, she sits in on a bench, imagining how happy she'd be when she'd see him.
Track 4 Ayal-Ayale is an Ethiopian folk song.
Track 6, Bronga-Faya is in Papiamento, which is one of the languages from the Curaçao island.
I don't much care for the melodies and vocals on 4 & 6; they both sound a bit too cheerful and a bit silly.
9 either seems to be Amharic (?) It has the best drum bits, but also seems to use auto tune.
11 is an Amharic translation of a verse in Ecclestiastes. I cannot really distinguish the words between the violins and other instruments, which overtake with a sense of raw energy.
Overall, I dislike tracks 1, 4, 6, 9, but like the other 8 songs. Thus my score of 7/10.
I made a playlist based on these songs, as much as youtube allowed. In some cases, the songs are slightly longest or shorter, but in essence, I preserved these 12 tracks.
The special edition (EAN 7293627821728) has all the same songs, adding a DVD with 5 karaoke versions of :
Bo'ee (2 or 12?) , Medabrim Besheket (7), Im Telekh (3) , Hinech Yaffa (5) , and Shoshanim Atzuvot (8). ( In parenthesis, I wrote the respective tracks of the CD songs).
These Karaoke versions are accompanied by footage from Ethiopia.
As I don't own this DVD, I cannot comment more.
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The International version of the album (EAN 890846001022) was released in 2016. It also contains 12 tracks, but several are actually from the Project's 2nd album.
Before I detail these, all artwork is different for this CD. It has brighter and more contrasted photography, and the titles of the songs are written in English transliteration and followed by English translations in parenthesis.
In the next Idan Raichel entry, I'll compare these editions.
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