The evolution of Matisyahu takes another turn

The 33-year-old Matisyahu is far from the one who lived for years in a modest apartment in Crown Heights, the Orthodox Jewish neighborhood in Brooklyn.

The last decade of my life has been immersed in Judaism and Jewish culture and Jewish religion and Jewish spirituality and I really took that trip as far as I could take it.

On Tuesday, he released his fourth studio CD, "Spark Seeker," a fresh sound produced by Kool Kojak with reggae, hip-hop and electronica layered over Middle Eastern instruments and rhythms.

The album, recorded in Los Angeles and Israel, veers from the pure pop of "Sunshine" — a song Katy Perry would happily release — to the acid hip-hop of "Tel Aviv'n" and dance hall in "Searchin."

The rapper Shyne — whose conversion to Judaism has been widely noted — appears on two songs.

Matisyahu was initially seen as a musical oddity when he emerged 10 years ago — a Lubavitch sect member in a flat-brim black hat and bushy beard who loved hip-hop beats and sang dance hall reggae in a Jamaican accent.

Arise, and the subsequent CDs Live at Stubb's and Youth — all featuring versions of his biggest single King Without a Crown — became a crossover hit.

Matisyahu had rebelled at becoming the poster boy for Orthodox Jewish cool and an uneasy stand-off had developed between the artist and a community that both embraced and feared his unpredictability.

The next day, Matisyahu was scrolling through his Twitter feed when a fan, unaware of the change, quoted one of his lyrics, "At the break of day I look for you at sunrise/When the tide comes in I lose my disguise."