True – Avicii
I had no idea who Avicii was (now I do!) till I stumbled on his debut studio album, True. The only Avici I know before this was Avichi Higher Secondary School, Virugambakkam, Chennai! But this is one album that I have listened like hell, last month! It’s consistently uptempo and puts a spring in my day. The music is simpistic, but his collaborations make a big difference to the tunes too. In the end this is an album that has the most pleasant foot-tapping sounds assembled in an album in recent times! Highly recommend it!
Maleyam – Thacholi Varghese Chekavar (Malayalam, Sharreth Vasudevan)
This is a 1995 song that I had no idea existed. I haven’t gone into a time travel of Sharreth’s repertoire (I should, I guess!) and stumbled on this song very recently, thanks to Musicaloud’s mention of it in another context. Chithra rules the song, understandably, but Sharreth’s tune is the real winner here – totally involving! Mohanlal body contortions are uneasily distracting, as much as Nirosha’s alluring eyes that are attractively distracting!
Meher meher – D For Dopidi (Telugu, Sachin Jigar)
Sachin Jigar make their Telugu debut in a film produced by their Go Goa Gone directors, Raj Nidimoru and Krishna D.K. With just 2 songs, they stand out with this song that continues with their Shuddh Desi Romance sound. Lovely song!
Thanaro & Porumo – North 24 Kaatham (Malayalam, Rex Vijayan and Govind Menon)
Govind Menon of Thaikkudam Bridge-fame makes a great debut in this film. His 4 songs are very good, with Porumo standing out easily, featuring Raghu Dixit and fellow composer Bijibal’s enthusiastic vocals. Meanwhile Rex Vijayan too pitches in with a super song, in Thanaro!
Listen to Porumo here, on Soundcloud.
20/20 Experience 2 of 2 – Justin Timberlake
The sequel to Justin’s earlier fantastic showy pop album is less impressive, in comparison. The expansive, mega production sound is intact, but only a few tracks work, as against the uniformly likeable sound of the earlier album. The disco’wy Take back the night works easily, to start with, as does Amnesia, with a sound very reminiscent of Jackson’s productions. The best of the set is Drink You Away, with its captivating retro rock sound. Good follow-up by Justin, but one that doesn’t match or outdo the earlier album… almost like a B-side album of sorts!
Jabilli nuvve – Ramayya Vasthavayya (Telugu, Thaman S)
Ramayya Vasthavayya is proof that Thaman is morphing fast into Devi Sri Prasad territory – the sound is changign very fast! One notable sign is the way Devi uses a vocal hook and follows it up with an instrumental version of the hook… and repeats it endlessly till it registers in our head. Thaman used this technique to ape Devi in Greekuveerudu earlier… now I see it in full flow in this film! When used appropriately, it can work well, I agree, but it is getting to be an overdose now. Still, Jabilli nuvve is a gorgeous song if I ignore memories of a once-plump-now-odd-shaped Junior NTR moving as gracefully (!) as Mohanlal, to the lilting tune!
The Last Ship – Sting
The man returns with original material written by himself after a decade! The set, produced as part of his forthcoming Broadway debut play (of the same name) takes us back to The Soul Cages (he directly invokes it directly in Language of Birds – ‘…but his soul was still trapped in the cage…’!) . The songs are poignant and reflective of life, and you get to clearly hear his mind in the uncomplicated pipes and accordion driven (besides guitar) led tunes. This is vintage Sting, with a few extra goodness thrown in for additional pleasure in tracks like the beautifully jazzy And Yet, the very-Russian’ish The Last Ship and the lovely Irish sound in What Have We got?
Ae le le, Inikka inikka & Munnaadi porapulla – Naiyaandi (Tamil, Ghibran)
Ghibran is clearly going from strength to strength, the lenghty and sometimes pointless debate in the soundtrack review’s comments section notwithstanding. He has a distinct sound and seems to be one of the few composers who labors heavily in building multiple little nuances across the song. Naiyaandi has an imposingly intriguing set of sounds – right from Teddy Bear, that tops it all! But these 3 songs impressed me the most, despite the Tamil murder in Ae le le and Munnadi porapulla (that they singers were in tune is more important to me, than Tamil murder. I mean, the latter bothers me too, but to a lesser extent).
Listen to the film’s songs here.
Aha mazhaiyum illai, Pesaamal pesum & Vinmeeniley – Manadhil Maayam Seidhai (Tamil, Manikanth Kadri)
I’m really happy to note that Manikanth is back to his original promise he demonstrated in some of his earlier albums. The Maand-raaga based Aha mazhaiyum illai is easily the pick of the soundtrack – very breezy and likeable tune! Vinmeeniley, in a way reminds me of Rhythm’s Thaniye… lovely song, again!
Boomiyil, Kaanum gnyanam & Pa pa – Pizza II: Villa (Tamil, Santhosh Narayanan)
Santhosh too, like Ghibran, has a sound more unique than other composers (particularly the newer ones), but it is fast turning out to be a liability as it was an advtange since he seems to be using it rather too often! But still, it is a good listen in its early days (nowadays!). He manages to produce offbeat crackers like Kaanum gnyanam and I’m really thankful to him for that!
Andha naalil & Kannil kanniloru – Pattam Pole (Malayalam, M.Jayachandran)
Andha naalil is so, so, so Nila Kaaigiradhu from Indira! The sound is sparse, and the focus is entirely (and rightly so) on the Tamil lyrics sung by Jayachandran and Mridula Warrior Madhu Balakrishnan and Harini. Beautifully serene and very hummable! Kannil kanniloru is a different extreme, though, very likeable too. Vijay Prakash leads the song in his own inimitable way, while it was surprising to see Shaktisree Suchitra merely following his lead and not go into full-fledged singing – the song’s template is like that, in a way where she follows the male lead, but even here, Jayachandran has given her some neat lines to hum and sing and she does it damn well!
Rokka eradakku – Daasvaala (Kannada, V.Harikrishna)
A throwback to the old-fashioned theme/title song kinda tune, but made really different because of Shankar Shanbhog’s earthy vocals! Hari also loads it with a catchy rhythm that helps, beisdes the rhyming lyrics!
Listen to this song here.
Masthaani – Rebel (Kannada, Jessie Gift)
Jessi Gift, that ‘Lajjavathy’ guy hasn’t had anything worthwhile in a long time and has been focusing almost exclusively on Kannada cinema, for some odd reason (other industries didn’t welcome him?) has yet another soundtrack in Rebel. To be fair, Masthaani is the old trope of the films leads singing in drunken stupor, but Jessie ropes in Santhosh Venki and Aakansha Badami to croon this groovy track really well! The tune is, in character, part reggae’ish, loaded with a curiously absorbing orchestration set the composer conjures. Good listen!
Listen to this song here.
Jaadhu & Arare ararare – Dilwala (Kannada, Arjun Janya)
Jaadhu has Shreya Ghoshal and Shankar Mahadevan taking turns singing a slow and rythmic wedding’ish folk portion respectively – makes for a good contrast. The interludes too, in Sanjay Leela Bhansali style, are folk’ish and add tremendous value! Arare, on the other hand is what Arjun is usually really good at! Fantastc sax usage and a really addictive hook! Vijay Prakash, who can neve go wrong, in Kannada where he is ruling the roost, and Saindhavi are very good with their vocals.
Listen to the film’s songs here.
Loaded (Primal Scream), There’s No Other Way (Blur), What you do to me (Teenage Fanclub) & Fools Gold (The Stone Roses) – The World’s End OST
Not only do Simon Pegg and Nick Frost make consistently kick-ass films, but their soundtrack sare also top notch. The film is very, very like the duo’s earlier films – madcap and incredibly all over the place in a very enjoyable way! This film too involes everything from wonderful English pubs (13 of them, in total!!) and aliens (again, after Paul!). And it has Rosamund Pike… do I need to say anything more? The soundtrack is very apt and has tons of fantastic songs put together really well. Right from Primal Scream’s Loaded plays near the beginning of the film, he sound is very uniform and totally likeable! Great film and OST combo, this! The last time I was so sold on a 20+ song soundtrack like this was She’s Out Of My League!
Note: I’m not adding individual songs I liked from Coke Studio Season 3 because one, I have written about them already, individually, per episode. Also, once the season ends (in October, 2 more episode, as I understand, with independent bands and assortments), I do intend to do a summary post with my favorites from this season.