Berel Alexander Ensemble - Hooked (2009)

Hooked has a 1970s retro feel, a nuanced, acoustic, organic sound with beautiful singing and imaginative arrangements. The fifty-two minute album delivers a dozen expertly crafted original songs.
Berel Alexander is a musical storyteller who takes us to a place of dreams, celebration and self-discovery. Mature, powerful themes are delivered with boyish charm. The lyrics make intelligent writing sound cool.
Combining voices, strings, reeds, brass, keys and percussion, Hooked offers a captivating ensemble sound that reaches across continents and generations.
With a masterful command of rhythm and rhyme, Berel Alexander draws the listener deep inside each song:
The album opener, “It All Started With A Handshake,” evokes the fun and folly of new infatuation, with dynamic guitar work, swells of the Hammond B3 organ, horns, strings and Berel’s playful, seemingly effortless vocals.
In the up-tempo “Perfection,” philosophy meets jazz, with a shimmering violin solo and smoldering reply from the cello. Rapid fire vocals offer the wry observation: “Perfection is really just an opinion / and nothing’s ever perfect if you can’t stop judging everything / Perfection is the destination / on this ship of our relation.”
With the crystal clarity of solo voice and guitar on “No Rules,” the songwriter moves from sweet seduction to empathy: “Darlin’ it’s so easy to please me / Darlin’ it’s all right to be sad sometimes / Just take it as it comes/ and don’t plan too much/ ‘cause plans are bound to be broken / There are no rules for what we’re doin’ now.”
With heartfelt warmth, honesty and humor, Berel Alexander is writing a new page in the American songbook. You can follow his music, but it takes you somewhere you didn’t expect to go.