Album Notes

Friday Night Lights was given an Honorable Mention by the Recorded A Cappella Review Board (RARB) for the best a cappella albums of 2009. According to Jonathan Minkoff of RARB, "The Shabbatones' Friday Night Lights is a meteorite hurling towards the Earth, burning up the sky and leaving onlookers breathless at its mesmerizing intensity. Leads are raw, agile, and compelling. The fact that Hebrew, this album's dominant language, has a slightly more gutteral quality than English only enhances the intensity of these already emotional solos. As the singers reveal themselves, the listeners are drawn in, making even the language barrier seem inconsequential. The Shabbatones' style is straight ahead rock, and in combination with attentive production and engineering, we never hear these tracks as karaoke. The Shabbatones actually rock, rather than merely performing rock repertoire. Again surprisingly, Hebrew only seems to assist in cementing this distinction."

Founded in 2001, the Shabbatones are the student-run Jewish a cappella group at the University of Pennsylvania. One of the premier Jewish a cappella groups in the country, they are known for their energetic arrangements and entertaining performances. Specializing in popular American, Israeli and Jewish music, the Shabbatones have performed for a variety of audiences both at Penn and at other venues throughout the country. All of their arrangements are written by group members.