Summer Sounds

After nearly an year long hiatus I thought of writing about my favorite albums and songs this summer and there are quite a few things to talk about!

Two albums are tied for the Top Position in my list: 'Aamir' and 'Jane Tu Ya Jane Na'.

'Aamir' was the debut film for its producers (UTV Spotboy Films), director (Raj Kumar Gupta), hero (Rajiv Khandelwal) and its music director (Amit Trivedi) and one must applaud Trivedi for his fantastic debut. The album spans every genre in today's popular music and every song is a treat. Even 'theme music' makes a comeback after long time and is pretty good. Lyrics are good however a few grammatical mistakes like 'raat ka bhor' sound awkward!

Album features 'Dilruba' from 'Kailasa' and 'Bandya' from 'Khuda Ke Liye' and I need not say that these tracks enhance the value of this album even more!

If the first album was from a debutante, the other belongs to a maestro! 'JTYJN' as it is called in SMS lingo, is such a different offering from A R Rahman, that it doesn't even seem to be a Rahman creation. You need not listen to the songs repeatedly to be hooked to them, it happens in very first hearing itself! Featuring 10 unheard voices the songs sound mint fresh and range across emotions. Director Abbas Tyrewala has penned the songs and though his writing is a bit cliched, I didn't mind really.

Disappointments:
Love Story 2050 - What was Anu Malik thinking when he was doing music for this film. Ofcourse songs should look good onscreen, but that doesn't mean that they should sound bad otherwise! Only a couple of songs are appealing for their melody, rest seem to have been composed to just provide Harman Baweja and Priyanka Chopra ample chances to dance.

Mission Istanbul - No, don't blame me of being biased against Anu Malik. It's not my fault that his second big album features here. It's just because these two were big budget films and one expected to have good music for them. Forget tunes, Malik has nothing innvative even in arrangement. It's no coincidence that 'Apun Ke Sath' reminds you of 'Ganpat' ('Shootout at Lokhandwala'). Again only one of the tracks ('Jo Gumshuda') is worth listening.

So So:
Thoda Pyar Thoda Magic - Shankar Mahadevan is a good singer, and this album shows you when too much of a good thing can be a little...not so good! Mahadevan is the single male voice in this album and that's not very good news. The music seems to lack novelty and is partly in 'Jhoom Barabar Jhoom' mode (ohh just remembering that album gives me shivers. May be I should start calling it 'You Know What'). 'Lazy Lamhe' may rise in charts due to sultry, sexy avatar of Amisha Patel. Prasoon Joshi's lyrics are perhaps best among everything I talked here about. But the album is at best an average offering.


This is what I think about bollywood music, would love to know what you think.