Wednesday, February 22, 2017

Music Review (Malayalam): Angamaly Diaries

Music Review (Malayalam): Angamaly Diaries
Music Composer: Prashant Pillai

Lijo's penchant for brass is evident with brilliant PamPara Paa in Amen and Angamaly in Angamaly Diaries. Angamaly's high octane brass band arrangements mixed with native folk vocals of Angamaly Pranchi is foot tapping at best, though it falls a tad behind the Amen track. Ayalathe is a most interesting composition by Prashant Pillai with the melange of sounds from the Rajesh Cherthala's Pan flute,Prakash Ulleri's Harmonium and deftly placed knocking and other assorted sounds throughout the song. Theeyame is another folk traditional song brimming with native flavour while both arrangements and singers stay true to the tune. The exuberant brass sections and Angamaly Pranchi returns back in Thana Dhina and the result is alluring as the previous song. The charming melodic track Do Naina's 5 versions seems to be overkill, however, the beauty of the tune and exquisite waltzy arrangements highlighted by piano makes up for the grouses. Preethi Pillai and Shreekumar Vakkiyil nails the beautiful tune with the vocals in their respective versions.

Verdict: Lijo- Prashant Pillai combo continues to enchant the music lovers with their curious soundscape after Amen and Double Barrel.

My Rating:8/10

Pick of the Album: Do Naina, Angamaly, Ayalathe

Music Review (Kannada): Happy New Year

Music Review (Kannada): Happy New Year
Music Composer: Raghu Dixit

Adda Bidde Madessa's buoyant rhythms and intricate violin solos come off as a winsome combination complementing the composer's vocals in a pitch-perfect manner. The tune is typical Raghu Dixit's one and also enjoyable throughout the song. Badhuke Neenantha Nataka benefits largely from the Kapil Nair's sincere rendition while Raghu Dixit's string-laden gloomy backgrounds sounds apt for the melancholy. Composer ends the track in a splendid manner transcending from classical touch to rock crescendo. Sa re Ga Ma Pa Da Ni's cheerful guitar laden soundscape gets a fantastic vocal support from Nakul Abhyankar while Raghu Dixit's backgrounds continue to be engaging throughout the song especially blissful second interlude. Kaurava's high energy kuthu and Master Vishwas's singing is the holding factor in an otherwise passable song. Preetiya Hesare Neenu's minimal guitar led arrangements is soothing in the vocals of Raghu Dixit. Raghu Dixit ends the soundtrack with mass friendly as well as mediocre party anthem which fails to excite the listeners.

Verdict: Raghu Dixit's sophomore feature album strikes the chord and the soundtrack is thoroughly enjoyable except for the couple of songs.

My Rating: 7.75/10

Pick of the Album: Badhuke Neenantha Nataka, Adda Bidd Madessa, Sa Re Ga Ma Pa Da Ni

Sunday, February 19, 2017

Music Review (Telugu): Winner

Music Review (Telugu): Winner
Music Composer: Thaman

Suyaa Suyaa's cringe worthy pedestrian lyrics aside, the template of the song is threadbare one with hardly any interesting elements in both arrangements as well as the tune. The song reminds of the multitude of similar compositions, one can come across in any Telugu album. Anurag Kulkarni and Suma Kanakala's vocals provide respite in an otherwise passable opening song of the album. Sitara Sitara is no different from Thaman's pleasing compositions, but the song has a lot of elements to like for and makes Sitara easily listenable one in the album. The song gains highly from the vocal support of Yazin Nizar, who gets to croon one enjoyable melody in most of the Telugu albums. The flute hook is the catchy one which Thaman used effectively.
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Pichonne Aiyipoya is a harmless techno dominated track with the mix of Telugu and Hindi lyrics while Thaman's autotuned vocals continue to hamper the listener's mood.It's difficult to discern the vocals of the three lead singers Deepak, Christopher Stanley and Sai Charan. The peppy dance track works considerably well mainly because of foot tapping tune although treads on the familiar zone.Bhajrangabali has a string of singers lead by MLR Karthik and the tune, as well as arrangements, are adequately revolutionary complementing the inspirational lyrics invoking Che Guevera. Though the song stays low key throughout, there is a lovely pleasant brief transition towards the end of the track. Overall, an engaging song which needs visual to create an impact on the listeners.Naa B C Centerlu as apparent from the song title, is the mandatory mass number which seems to be inevitable in any commercial Telugu albums. Surprisingly, the usage of percussions are kept at an acceptable level and lovely usage of guitar strums for the song of this genre. Nakash Aziz breezes through the song effectively while Sharmila aptly supports him. Compared to other songs. this song features an interesting usage of instruments.

Verdict: Minimum guarantee soundtrack from Thaman and he continue to deliver what expected out of the commercial composer in Telugu Industry.

My Rating: 6.5/10

Pick of the Album: Sitara Sitara, Naa B C Centerlu, Pichonne Ayipoya

Tuesday, February 14, 2017

Music Review (Tamil) : Mupparimanam

Music Review (Tamil) : Mupparimanam
Music Composer: GV Prakash Kumar

Sokki Poraandi is a pleasing folk-tinged melody and GV Prakash's orchestration are aptly soothing flows in tandem with the melody of the song. Composer effectively utilised the percussions throughout the song and managed to blend the foot tapping percussions without ruining the pleasant melody part. Al Rufian and Maalavika Sundar ably support with the vocals.Kannodu Kannodu starts off well with the Satyaprakash displaying his singing prowess but soon mired into the bland EDM template and even singer also unable to salvage the languishing tune. The auto tuning of Satyaprakash's vocals makes him sound like the composer himself. 

GV Prakash strikes a chord with an absolute winner in the soundtrack in the form of Uyirile Uyirile. The composer propped the breezing semi-classical melody with the impressive usage of ghatam throughout the song and the classical violin and flute in the interludes are the splendid piece from the composer. The tune is a cake-walk for Vijay Prakash and the man nails the singing portion as always.Yaar Ivano has the weaker tune accompanied by the tepid techno sounds in the background while Santosh Hariharan, brief violin solos and the rock-tinged guitar riffs make up for the weaker tune to some extent. However, this song is an underwhelming work from the composer.Let's go Party, once again dives into uninteresting techno dominated track while Varun Parandhaman's vocals and MC vickey's  rap portions salvage this uninspiring song. The EDM sounds transcending into kuthu towards the end are perfunctory and fails to elevate the level of the song.

Verdict: GV Prakash's Mupparimanam is strong in melodies with an absolute gem in the form of Uyirile whereas EDM tracks are disappointing affair from the composer.

My Rating: 7/10

Pick of the Album: Uyirile Uyirile, Sokki Poraandi



Music Review (Tamil): Kavan

Music Review (Tamil): Kavan
Music Composer: Hip Hop Tamizha

Happy New Year has a saleable energetic T Rajendar vocals behind the mic and the man steals the show with his verve as always while the tune remains the mediocre level. Hip Hop Tamizha enrich the average tune with Balasubramani's Nadhaswaram but the song stays as a passable one rides mainly on the foot tapping beats and energy level of the singer. Oxygen is the breezy melody with right amounts of Hip Hop Tamizha's typical tune sung well by Hip Hop Tamizha and Sudharshan Ashok. Composer made the consistently engaging background for the song with Krishna Kishor's Tabla in the second interlude being the highlight.

Kabilan Vairamuthu's quirky lyrics along with Maxwell Rajan's Trumpet in the interludes and consistent eerie jazz background makes this one a worthy listen. Kaber Vasuki breezes through the song with right attitude despite the auto tuning turn off the listeners at few instances and composer makes up for that with the pleasing arrangements.Theeradha Vilyattu Pillai is the incongruous mix of classical, western and folk elements for the Mahakavi Bharathiyar's verses. The classical vocals by Padmalatha and the corresponding arrangements come off as a winsome one, however, sadly same cannot be said about Hip Hop Tamizha's vocals while Anthony Daasan's folk elements fared better relatively. The shift between each section appears to be abrupt.Boomerang is the another routine Hip Hop Tamizha track which lacks the memorable tune as well as arrangements. The lead singer vocal becomes the overkill for the album which has 4 songs out of 5 with Hip Tamizha's vocals. Nikita Gandhi, Velmurugan and Kaushiki's vocals also didn't help the mediocre song much.

Verdict: Hip Hop Tamizha plays to his strength in Kavan and the composer's few experiments didn't work as expected which makes Kavan partially engaging work from the composer.

My Rating : 7/10

Pick of the Album: Oxygen, Madhurangalam, Theeradha Vilayattu Pillai

Friday, February 10, 2017

Music Review (Tamil): Yaman

Music Review (Tamil): Yaman
Music Composer: Vijay Antony

Yem Mela kai vacha gaali is a tedious listen, largely owing to the monotonous tune and Annamalai's pedestrian lyrics doesn't help either while Vijay Antony spruces up the proceedings with his vocals and tinge of jazz in the arrangements. However as a whole, this song stays low-key one in the album. Damelo Damelo has an interesting prelude hook and composer utilises in a much better way while Saranya aces the singing part with her earnest energetic rendition. Though the song has nothing much to offer musically, singer and tune make this one passable listen and helps to sail through unscathed.

Kadavul Ezhudhum rides mainly on the lead singer vocals especially Janani Iyer's effortless rendition, however languishing tune by the composer is a great let down and the arrangements are monotonous except for the brief violin solo in the second interlude Sigaram Chella's orchestration is grand and anthemic filled with string sections similar to every song of this genre. The short under 3 minutes song ends majorly as background'sh material rather than as a song. The singers made the song afloat till it ends.Neeye Thaniyai is an another optimistic piece by Vijay Antony and the song fared much better due to its congruous tune and string-laden arrangements. Jagadeesh scores well with his energetic rendition and composer makes this 3 minutes song with an engaging orchestration.

Verdict: Vijay Antony's Yaman is highly generic one without any interesting elements to offer both musically and lyrically.

My Rating: 6/10

Pick of the Album: Neeye Thaniyai


Music Review (Tamil): Dora

Music Review (Tamil): Dora
Music Composer : Vivek-Mervin

Enga Pora's breezy guitar laden melody is an adequately engaging one with lilting chorus sections and the heard before feel is difficult to shrug off. Vivek Merwin, however, scores easily with the nifty touches in the interludes packed with competent Carnatic style string sections and Kanjira touches is a winsome one while Mervin Solomon's competent singing makes it worthwhile listen.  Vaazhavudu's background is crammed with foot tapping beats, Keba Jeremiah's guitar strums topped with curious sounds in the interludes and Vignesh Shivan's free flowing lyrics aids the song, however the tune lies in the weaker side comparatively. Vivek Siva and Sanjana lifts the song with the splendid attitude in their vocals.

Ra Ra is an interesting song from Vivek- Merwin and the composers mix the panting sounds adeptly with the peculiar synthesised sounds throughout the song. Anirudh Ravichander complements the tempo of the song with the punchy vocals and the melody structure reminds of Veera Vinayaka from Vedhalam, however, the singer makes this on engaging one with a lot of support from Keba Jeremiah.
Break Loose, thriller themes are difficult to envisage without the haunting piano keys as a base and Break loose has the steady persistent key rhythm topped with gibberish humming sounds. Vivek Merwin creates the atmospheric sound effectually. Run Baby Run starts off interestingly but ends up being the mediocre techno dominated song with forgettable rap portions. The Evil within, another techno sound dominated theme track, sounds far interesting mainly due to the eccentric vocal sample. Composer builds the theme track exceptionally well around that unconventional vocal. The piano base returns again in Ssearch for the truth with the tinge of melancholy humming accompanied by the brief violin solo. Composer ends the theme with the variant of Enga Pora Dora. Composer duo ends the soundtrack with This is it theme, most grandly orchestrated theme track and also falls in the generic category.

Verdict: Vivek - Mervin scored the hattrick of sorts in Dora after Vadacurry and Pugazh. Composer duo's songs are consistently engaging and competent one.

My Rating: 8/10

Pick of the Album: Enga Pora Dora, Evil within, Ra Ra Ra