High Holy Days mix a bit too easy on the ears

Some gaps were not meant to be bridged.

One gap — between those who don't think High Holy Day psalms belong in pop songs and those who do — may be unbridgeable. Call it a taste gap, a gray area between opinions that are worlds apart.

Craig Taubman calls his "Inscribed: Songs for Holy Days" a "bridge between the ancient liturgy and the modern worshipper."

But this a very specific kind of bridge, for aficionados of overproduced smooth jazz and instrumental pop.

Taubman, who wrote the songs and music on "Inscribed" and produced it with Chris Hardin and Dale Schatz, might have done what he set out to a make: an album capturing the spirit of the High Holy Days through accessible music.

The songs on "Inscribed" are easy-listening, somewhat eclectic with light piano and even lighter vocals, the occasional saccharine cello or trumpet solo and violin or accordion accompaniment.

Some people can stomach this kind of music, some people even love it, but others chase the memories away of the experience with almost any other genre.

For the most part, "Inscribed" is a light and fairly pleasant compilation. It's like Taubman's "Friday Night Live" album-cover photo of seven rainbow-colored hands around a table reaching towards a loaf of challah. Clever? Or questionable?

The collection of songs is intended for the High Holy Days, though Taubman reminds us in the liner notes that the prayers he used are not limited to Rosh Hashanah, Sukkot and Yom Kippur.

Taubman's work was not always so take-it-or-leave-it. His credits include several albums with the Walt Disney Records label in the early '90s (starring Mickey, Minnie and other Disney characters), Ford jingles and songs for feature films like "The Adventures of Pinocchio" and "Andre."

The last two tracks are edgier, with the final track, "Im Ain Ani Li" warming up to a hard rap with eastern-influenced vocals. But if the album appealed to the easy-listening crowd, this last track loses them completely.

Maybe the listeners who are attracted to the pop-liturgy combo are open to an even more experimental spark.

But as the rapper spits out the line, "Open up your mind and be kind to your neighbors / You'll taste the sweetness in 18 flavors," you might feel like it's time to burn this bridge.

By the end of the record, it's hard to tell who Taubman's audience is. Your grandmother or your teenage son?

The one thing you are almost guaranteed to love about "Inscribed" is the cool-looking scroll inside the edge of the case. You might think it too is too kitschy. But let's cross that bridge when we come to it.


"Inscribed" by Craig Taubman is available at http://www.craignco.com.