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Possessed | ||||
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Studio album by | ||||
Released | 1997 | |||
Genre | Klezmer | |||
Label | Xenophile[1] | |||
Producer | Robert Musso | |||
The Klezmatics chronology | ||||
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Possessed is an album by the American klezmer group the Klezmatics, released in 1997.[2][3]
The album was produced by Robert Musso.[4] "Moroccan Game" is an instrumental.[5]
The second half contains the band's score to Tony Kushner's A Dybbuk, or Between Two Worlds.[6] Kushner also penned the liner notes.[7]
Review scores | |
---|---|
Source | Rating |
AllMusic | [8] |
Chicago Tribune | [9] |
Robert Christgau | A−[10] |
(The New) Rolling Stone Album Guide | [6] |
Windsor Star | A[11] |
Robert Christgau opined that "this is a vision band with a genre, not a genre band with a vision."[10] The Advocate wrote that "there's a heaviness to the Klezmatics that's anathema to ordinary klezmer music, which by its very nature and function is escapist, even as it celebrates cultural cohesion."[12]
The Windsor Star stated that "the clarinet wails, the fiddle and horns sing, the beat is incessant, and the Yiddish vocals transcend the language barrier."[11] The Chicago Tribune thought that "Alicia Svigals' violin is a revelation, and Lorin Sklamberg's vocals—which can be as sublime as a cantor's or as sly as a drunk's—evoke the Jewish diaspora in both divine and uniquely American terms."[9]
AllMusic wrote that "while there is plenty of their familiar frenzied spiritual party music, there is also some goregeously evocative minor-key mysticism."[8]