Milliblog Weeklies – India’s only multilingual, weekly new music playlist.
Week 107: On | On
10 songs this week. 9 each in YouTube and JioSaavn, but not the same 9 🙂 YouTube is missing the song from Shivaji Surthkal, while JioSaavn is missing the song from Varane Avashyamund.
Bhankas – Baaghi 3 (Bappi Lahiri and Tanishk Bagchi) – Hindi: Tanishk does what he does best and what is expected of him these days – recreate yet another song from another era and makes people go that song’s video and comment under it, ‘Who is here after Baaghi 3?’. As usual, he also cranks up the shoosha significantly to outdo the original’s spunk. It’s all solid fun and immensely catchy.
Tum Na Ho – M Ajay Vaas, Ft. Arjun Kanungo and Prakriti Kakar (Hindi/Indipop): Ajay’s tune is what made this song for me, more than the star singers and the fancy music video. Of course, Arjun and Prakriti do their job darn well, but the main tune and the music elevates this song pretty well.
Cycle Gap – Shakthisree Gopalan (Tamil/Indipop): Written, composed and sung by Shakthisree herself, this is a simple and cute song for Valentine’s Day 2020. The lyrics are pedestrian including using a dialog from Alai Paayuthey and Pepsi’s ad slogan, but it’s all good, harmless fun within the theme of the song. What is truly interesting is that it allows for the feminine expression of being in love, without showing the object of affection (which is usually the case in film songs’ equivalents). And the music video could easily be confused as a Lenskart advertisement with Shakthisree as their brand ambassador.
Neela Vaan (Lovers’ Lullaby) – Staccato (Tamil/Indipop): Wonderfully serene music to look back with fondness and nostalgia, and wanting to go back to that time. Lines like ‘Naam tholaitha naangu vasantham meetteduppoma’, expressively sung by Gowtham Bharadwaj and Niranjana Ramanan make this pleasant melody thoroughly enjoyable.
Jaalame & Mathayichan – Trance (Jackson Vijayan) – Malayalam: Jaalame builds very impressively on top of a hymnal/religious prayer like sound. The choir (Asima Ensemble Malayalam Men Choir Group) in the song is expansively utilized and the music has a haunting quality too. Mathayichan is a punchy rap led by Blaaze and Soubin Shahir. The repetitive sounds and the occasional dialogs in between keep it interesting.
Muthunne Kannukalil – Varane Avashyamund (Alphons Joseph) – Malayalam: Alphons continues with the semi-classical sound he so astutely used in Nee Vaa En Aarumukha, in this song. The singers, Swetha Mohan and Swetha Somasundaran, truly bring out the joyous outburst of an emotion in the song.
Smaranakal Kaadayi – Bhoomiyile Manohara Swakaryam (Sachin Balu) – Malayalam: This is a warm throwback to a different era of Malayalam film music. There’s also an Ilayaraja’esque touch in the interludes and the anupallavi. Wonderfully sung by Shabazz Amman and Sithara Krishnakumar; particularly Shabazz in the anupallavi as it turns into a gorgeous ghazal-like sound.
Aparichita – Shivaji Surathkal: The Case Of Ranagiri Rahasya (Judah Sandhy) – Kannada: A short 4-song soundtrack from Judah, mainly at the service of the film, from the sound of it. The one song that did stand out for me is this, sung beautifully by Shreya Sundar Iyer. Judah’s melody is low-key and very mellifluous, with a mild retro-touch.
Best Friend – Shan Vincent de Paul & Yanchan (Rap) – Yanchan’s mridangam mix doesn’t play up at all in this song, but this one also samples A.R.Rahman’s Mustafa Mustafa to an alluring effect. The whole song is built on that sample and Shan’s rap is layered into it really well.
If you’d like to sample the real mridangam rap mix, here’s a track!
