Even Our Silent Cries

Like her previous two albums in the Miracles series, songwriter CHAYALA NEUHAUS’s latest release, MIRACLES 3, consists of another ten original English compositions, with her hit single “A Yid,” released last year with singer Benny Friedman, making a welcome reappearance as the eleventh track. The album’s featured vocalist is child soloist Gavriel Pelcovitz, with a guest appearance by Benny Friedman for the contemplative ballad “Odeh.”

Chayala says most of the themes of her songs originated as personal reflections or challenges, but the album brings them into the public realm, where they can be appreciated by and touch the hearts of a broad audience. As a songwriter, she says, “I leave a piece of myself on each of my compositions.” But while each song might contain a message, under Doni Gross’s musical production, all that contemplation and chizuk is wrapped in a package of listening pleasure.

One example is the song “Hodu Lashem”: “Not sure sometimes if I want to laugh or cry / Cuz life feels so uneasy…. / Stop the world for a minute / maybe more / cuz there are such nice touches in it / I have so much to be grateful for.” Chayala composed this to capture the emotional dichotomy of overwhelm on one hand and blessing on the other.

“I once posed the following question to several people: ‘If you could write a song now, what would you say?’ and the responses were spread all the way from laughter to tears,” she says. “In the end, though, my conclusion was that we can’t be any less than grateful.” The song feels very relatable, as well as reflective of the past few turbulent years.