Protocols (album)

Protocols is the debut studio album by American Hasidic anti-folk singer Rav Shmuel. It was produced by Michael Ferrentino and ex-Wonder Stuff drummer Andres Karu and released on September 8, 2006 by Jewish Music Group. The album title is a reference to the infamous antisemitic hoax The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, which Rav Shmuel sarcastically confesses to in the album's title track.

Protocols
Studio album by
Rav Shmuel
ReleasedSeptember 8, 2006 (2006-09-08)
RecordedDoghaus Studios in Baltimore, Maryland
GenreJewish rock, alternative rock, anti-folk
Length48:21
LabelJewish Music Group
ProducerAndres Karu, Michael Ferrentino
Rav Shmuel chronology
Some People Think That I Am Damned
(2005)		 Protocols
(2006)		 TBA
Singles from Protocols
  1. "Protocols"
    Released: November 2, 2006
  2. "Somebody Else"
    Released: September 28, 2012

Singles

The album's lead single, "Protocols" was released in music video form on November 2, 2006. The lyrics respond to antisemitism by jokingly confessing that The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, an infamous hoax text purporting to be Jewish plans for world domination, is completely accurate. The song's animated music video, created by Erik Horvitz, depicts Rav Shmuel interacting with celebrities like Mel Gibson, Steven Spielberg, and Madonna, and references several Jewish stereotypes.

A music video for "Somebody Else", directed by Francesco Thomas, was released on September 28, 2012. The video depicts Rav Shmuel as a captain aboard the RMS Queen Mary and shows several people, including performers on Hollywood Boulevard and star names on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, obscured by handheld question-mark signs.

Reception

AllMusic's Stewart Mason gave the album 3.5 out of 5 stars, calling it "an immediately likable bit of good-humored anti-folk that doesn't require the visuals -- or even the knowledge that, yes, Rav Shmuel really is a Hasidic rabbi -- to get across."[1] Ben Jacobson of The Jerusalem Post described it as "contemporary, fun and accessible but made heavier by a nuanced, early Dylan-like smirking sense of doom."[2]

Track listing

All tracks are written by Rav Shmuel.

No.TitleLength
1."Dumb World"3:04
2."Somebody Else"4:14
3."Big Talkers"4:30
4."I Feel Love"4:47
5."Protocols"3:38
6."Realistic X"4:44
7."Last Chance"3:13
8."Confused"3:41
9."Social Suicide"3:59
10."Itinerant Plea"4:31
11."I Am Oxygen"4:01
12."Fatherland"3:59
Total length:48:21

Personnel
  • Rav Shmuel – primary artist, photography
  • Andres Karu – record producer, engineer, mixing, performer
  • Michael Ferrentino – producer
  • Summer Ray Brown – project assistant
  • Richard Foos – project assistant
  • Leonard Korobkin – project assistant
  • David McLees – project assistant
  • Yehuda Remer – project assistant
  • Dean Schachtel – project assistant
  • Candy Shipley – project assistant
  • Stuart Wax – project assistant

References
  1. Mason, Stewart. Protocols - Rav Shmuel at AllMusic. Retrieved 18 Oct 2015.
  2. Jacobson, Ben (February 28, 2007). "Jewish Discs: Phishy rabbinics". The Jerusalem Post. Retrieved August 13, 2015.
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