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TWIN HITS

Pop-rockers debut "Evan and Jaron" on
Columbia Records.

SCOTT BENARDE
Special to the Jewish News

W

hether they like it or not, the
combination of a Top-20 hit,
"Crazy for This Girl," from their
album Evan and Jaron, and the fact
that they're rocking up the charts
while keeping kosher and
obserying•Shabbat, makes
Evan and Jaron Lowenstein
twin beacons for Jewish
observance. (The only other contem-
porary rock act to come close to
accomplishing this feat is singer-
sonawrirer Peter Himmelman.)
The twins' triumph is cause to
review their self-titled Columbia
Records debut in, shall we say, a
more holy light. For like the twins
themselves, the album can be
viewed in secular and religious
terms.
On the surface, the record brims
with muscular, hummable, hook-
filled pop rock. Song after song,
especially "Crazy," 'Done Hanging
On Maybe" and "From My Head to
My H ea rt," are pop-radio program-
mers' dreams.
They're all tuneful, laden with
shimmering harmonies and instant-
ly ear-grabbing; they fit smoothly
with what's on the air and in the
air. That also can be dangerous, rel-
egating the songs to shallow, dispos-
able fluff that will be forgotten by
the time the next trend drops. The
twins' cover-boy good looks add to
that percepuon.
But anyone who names their publish-
ing company Tzitzis What We Do
Music has got to be thinking deeper
than simply being "crazy for this girl," as
sweet and universal as the sentiment is.
As it turns out, it appears the
Lowenstein brothers run deeper than
radio-friendly teeny-bop pop. It's a
good bet the chugging rocker "Make
It Better" is about more than healing
broken bones or hearts.
The lyrics — "I've fallen down a
time or two, but no one was looking,
so I'm not telling you ... I've got to
find me a ladder to reach the light"
— find Evan and Jaron writing a
rock song about God and faith, and
succeeding in making it sound as sec-
ular as possible.
The same goes for "Pick Up The

Phone," a mid-tempo plea for good
counsel. With words like "Sorry to
call you in the middle of the night,
but my thoughts have kept me think-
ing about some things in my life ...
Won't you pick up the phone," these
guys are not dialing a shrink. They've
eady got the best in the business —
God. "Phone" is a prayer dis-
guised as a pop-rock song.
On its surface, the recently
charted "From My Head to
My Heart" sounds like a typical
breakup song, but it is just as easily
about temptation to stray from Torah
as the sirens of secular success beckon.
"You've got everything I could ever
want ... and we've been close from the
start, but the furthest distance I've ever

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known is from my head to my heart."
Listen closer (with a Jewish sensibili-
ty) to "Wouldn't It Be Nice to Be
Proud." The song isn't just about
believing in yourself; it's about believ-
ing in your religious beliefs, and living
by them no matter what others say.
Writing an album full of well-craft-
ed songs with solid hooks is no small
feat. Writing them with two com-
pletely different meanings in mind is
harder still.
For those who think these musi-
cians are writing pop pap, here's a tip
in football jargon: Go deep. The
Lowensteins are faking short and
throwing long.

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