Oren Lavie’s debut album, “The Opposite Side of the Sea” is an overall good album. It first hit shelves in early 2007 in several European countries. American fans were finally able to buy his album through Itunes in early 2008, the physical album was released in the US several months ago. Oren comes from Tel Aviv, Israel, but he began recording in Berlin. Oren Lavie’s music has heavy use of strings, also using keys, percussion instruments, and occasionally synth.

The album begins with my favorite track, “Her Morning Elegance,” which has a very relaxing beat, yet it still holds your attention, not making you zone out and forget you are actually listening to music, as can happen with some of the other music similar to his.

Track 2, “The Man Who Isn’t There,” combines soothing piano melodies with chilling vocals, backed by strings. This is a very good song to listen to if you use music to help you get to sleep, or if you have a long drive.

Next on the album is “The Opposite Side of the Sea,” the title track. It has a much more upbeat feel to it, with strong vocals and a string accompaniment that sounds like an orchestra arrangment translated to a much smaller scale.

The fourth track is “Locked In A Room,” which begins slow and then starts picking up. I personally don’t like this track as much as some of the others on the album, to me it is forgettable, though to others it might be their favorite track on the album.

Following this is “Ruby Rises,” which I find similar to “Locked In A Room” in its style. It is a slower song, and that is really not for me as I’m more of the upbeat/synth type.

Track 6, “A Dream Within A Dream,” is a very haunting and laidback song, which is to be expected from a song sharing the name of a poem by Edgar Allen Poe. In this song, he uses acoustic guitar and other string instruments, as well as piano. This song has a “soundtrack” feel to it, I can see it being used in the scene following a main conflict of a movie. The song has a uniform sound to it the whole time and doesn’t stray far from the path that was intended in the beginning.

The next track is “Trouble Don’t Rhyme,” which has a very slight Beatles feel to it. This is a much simpler song than the rest of the album, as it doesn’t have the sweeping string melodies of some of the other songs on the album. Even without that though, the acoustic guitar in this song is excellent, as well as the vocals.

Track 8 is “A Short Goodbye,” which brings back some of the other string elements from earlier in the album coupled with acoustic guitar and effective use of a shaker in the background. This song gives the feeling that it is about to change tempo andtake off into a much faster beat at any moment.

After that is “Don’t Let Your Hair Grow Too Long,” one of the deepest songs on the album. It begins with a somber, almost lonely sounding piano intro, and then the vocals come in and give the song a lounge feel. An excellent example of Oren’s talent, you don’t want to stop listening.

The tenth track on the album is titled “Blue Smile,” which has a great guitar intro and an echoing vocal track, which has an excellent contrast with the chorus which is a single voice.

Finally, the album ends with what is called the Unhidden Track, which shares a title with Oren’s record label, “A Quarter Past Wonderful.” This song is another one of my favorites, the guitar and vocals give it an incredibly relaxed feel, this is a good song to listen to when you have nothing else going on.

Overall, I would give this album 4/5 stars, Oren is an incredibly talented musician. On another note, I highly recommend watching the video for “Her Morning Elegance,” it is filmed in stop motion and could possibly be one of the greatest and most creative videos I have ever seen. I have included it below!