image courtesy of Dog Ranch Music PR

Album Review of Dekel: Starlings

Israeli singer-songwriter Dekel has delivered, in Starlings, an album with catchy, pop-accessible singer-songwriter fare with rich musical backdrops, with a lot of the flowing sounds often – though not always – owing their flowing nature to string arrangements and, it seems, accordion. Stylistically, it might remind you of Tori Amos with more folk leanings. Dekel’s press materials’ “for fans of” suggestions also mention Beirut, Joni Mitchell, Regina Spektor, and Keren Ann, and as much as I prefer to come up with my own comparisons, that’s a much better triangulation than I was ending up with on my own. I will add that, vocally, Dekel’s singing reminds me, in places, of Sophie Ellis-Bextor’s on her Familia album, which I reviewed several years ago. Specifically, the shape and roundness of some of the vocals, particularly on certain vowels.

Dekel’s music is catchy and fun to listen to, but as I don’t typically dig deeply into the indie folk-pop genre. Even moreso, the unique sounds on this record, which – and thankfully I have press material to lean on here – include “an abundance of Eastern European sounds with Jewish Ashkenazi melodies” mixes in with the pop-folk and layered production I’m more familiar with. What really stands out about this album for me are how catchy the songs are – as in, crossover to popular music fans kinda catchy. Starlings is, at its core, a song-driven pop music album whose rich sound is unique because of the musical palate in which Dekel works.

photo by Shahar Hilla; photo courtesy of Dog Ranch Music PR

The opening song “Starlings” starts things off cheerily, with Dekel’s vocal cadence adding a quirkiness that gains your attention atop a rich music bed. “Season to Season” is similar but with a different tempo and strumming pattern, plus some uneasiness guided both by the music and an edgy tone in Dekel’s vocals, though toward the end the mood lightens as if the new “season” includes rebirth.

Next up, “Black Cat” is one of my favorites on this record. It’s light with a playful tempo and accordion-playing that bring to mind gypsy music, at least based on the old black and white movies that serve as my entire understanding of what gypsy music sounds like. But yeah, it’s playful and fun.

The playfulness continues on the next song, “So Much Logic,” a song you’ll find yourself swaying to pretty quickly. It’s such a fun song that I constantly have the urge to sing along with the chorus, though I can’t keep from getting tonguetied on the lyrics: “So much logic has left me, no answer. I said, so much logic has left me, no answer. So I walk in the fields. Dip me in the sea. Burn in the sun.”

Dekel continues with “The Frog Prince,” a mostly-soaring song (with some cool, brief instrumental mood changes placed as necessary to drive the song and its story forward) that verbally and musically creates brilliant imagery, centering around idea that “every prince I kiss turns [turned] into a frog.”

“Sing With Me Sisters” is musically playful and vocally soulful with dramatic strings entering abruptly each time the chorus begins, providing lively, deep support until the next verse.

“I Know I Will” has a kind of frantic feeling, especially following a smooth song like “Sing With Me Sisters.” “I Know I Will” has a nervous energy about it. The thought  central to the song’s tension is “I know I will ’cause I finally understand who I am.” The anxiousness isn’t fear; rather, it’s an uneasy but confident rebirth. Oh, and there’s some cool fiddlework to close the song that those of us with mainstream musical experiences will most easily be able to compare with the violin playing in Fiddler on the Roof. I’m sure I’m using a horrifyingly simplistic comparison, but that’s what I have. “Meet Me Halfway” follows, also with an uneasy tempo but with a pleasant overall tone. And man, I wish I had some album credits for this to figure out precisely which instrument is playfully meandering through the arrangement, but it is very cool.

“My Song” is a very personal song for Dekel. The opening accordion sounds like music you might expect from the opening scene-setting scenes of a sixties movie, maybe starting Audrey Hepburn, set in southern Europe. Somewhere with cobblestone streets and hills. Probably Italy, right? Maybe Monaco. Possibly Greece. Somewhere along the Mediterranean coast, that’s for sure. Given Dekel’s background, I know I’m several countries away from the actual instrumental influences, but you know, that’s where the movies the music brings to mind would have been set. The theme of this inward-facing song for Dekel is the lyric “It’s not enough. It’s not enough. But my strong is all I had to keep me strong.” It is, indeed, her song.

Finally, the record closes with “Borrowed From the Soul,” is a jazzy, soulful, slightly folky pop song straight out of the ’60s or ’70s, in more stylish circles, something you might hear in the soundtrack of a James Bond movie or any movie scene where people are gathered at a party, not dancing but standing around holding martinis. I included the adjective “folky” because there’s a hint of a Judy Collins or Joni Mitchell vibe in there, too, especially in the verses, but the chorus is echoingly sophisticated, stylish, and cool.

I didn’t know quite what to expect from this album when I first listened to it, as indie world folk music isn’t anywhere near an area of strength for me. But even if I had known what to expect, this wouldn’t have been it. Sure, there a variety of influences that’ll be unfamiliar to American pop music ears. (I’m raising my hand here.) But the songs are personal and on universal topics, delivered with a very pop sensibility, regardless of the regional or historical origins of some of the instrumentation and melodies. Several of the songs on this record are simply pop songs with a potential for mainstream appeal. My recommendation is to give this album a listen and choose a few favorite songs, then work out from there. The favorite songs will be easy to find.