Music Round-up : Metro, The Train & Cheeni Kum
Life In a …Metro
The songs of (Life in a)Metro have been doing rounds of music channels for quite some time now, and it has been around 2 months that I have been wanting to write about them. Before I do a close-in on the songs, let me mention the people behind the ‘Band Metro’ , that has composed the songs, it comprises of
Pritam(Composer, Guitars, Backing Vocals),James, Sohail, Soham(Vocals), Niladri(Sitar), Kalyan Baruah(Guitar, Blues Harp), Jim Satya(Keyboards), Titu(Drums/Percussion), Eric Pillai(Mixing & Mastering), Naveen(Flute), Taufiq Qureishi(Percussion for ‘Kar Salaam’). Remixes by DJ Naved, Nikhil and Bunty Rajput. Lyrics- Syed Quadri(In Dino, Kar Salaam, Rishtey), Sandeep Srivastava(O Meri Jaan, Baatein Kuch Ankahee Si) and Amitabh Verma(Alvida).
The album is a little unconventional in the sense that it is being touted as the first out and out rock album in the mainstream film OST genre. They are trying to create an imagery out of quintessential city life emotions-separation, adultery, promiscuity(copyrighted by Bhatts now, but this one is UTV), loneliness in a crowd, and rock musicians standing and rocking to glory atop Mumbai skylines.
Metro: Track Listing
Alvida: KK
Alvida Reprise: James
Baatein Kuch Ankahee Si: Adnan Sami, Suhail(Unplugged)
O Meri Jaan: KK, Suhail(Reprise)
Rishtey: James
The songs are experimental to an extent, but they settle with you on few hearings. The one song that stands out (in both its versions), is Alvida. The most ‘Rock’ one if you ask me.
In Dino is the most hit material of the lot.
The album would, IMO, be the most complex and original of Pritam’s repertoire, with unadulterated rock sounds, ample guitars, and a little rhythm thrown in too in form of Kar Salaam, an odd concoction of a film song with Taufiq Qureishi’s drums.
This is easily one of the most fulfilling film albums to come this year, and raises the bar for any others to come in the genre of film-rock. There are the usual mixes and unplugged and house versions and stuff, but the originals are enough to add this one to your music rack.
The Train
Track Listing
Beete Lamhey: KK, Kshitij Tarey
Mausam: Kshitij Tarey, Mithoon
Teri Tamanna: KK, Shilpa Rao, Zubeen
The Train: Kshitij Tarey, Shaan
Wo Ajnabee: Mithoon, Shilpa Rao
Zindagi ne zindagi bhar gham diye
Jitne bhi mausam diye sab nam diye
The Train’s songs are melody based yet heavily are seated in an able orchestration, and sequencing. The piano loops, the complementing vocals and simple, yet thoughtful lyrics place the album a cut above the below than average film music that we are getting off late. The find of the album is a brilliant singer called Kshitij Tarey, and the composer Mithoon also dons the mike in the song Wo Ajnabee to a pretty impressive result.
Mausam is infectious, and bloody infectious at that! It builds frames , shadows, imagery all around, as you keep listening to the otherwise repetitive sounding verses, that run more like a jingle than a conventional song song.
Dard mein bhi ye lab muskura jaate hain
Beete lamhe hamein jab bhi yaad aate hain
Beete Lamhe doesn’t have anything new to offer on its face. KK crooning about Lamhe, dard et al. But few revisits and you discover the niceties. Heavily derived from Wo Lamhe, the track also manages to create its own little mouthful, again through a sound orchestral, mainly keyboards, backing. Mithun’s music is not groundbreaking like a Yuvan Shankar Raja or a Sandeep Chowta, but he is slowly developing his territory, relying mainly on grave vocals and mostly mellow and orthodox lyrics.
Wo Ajnabee is groovy, with a pacy n catchy beat, a it-ll-make-you-hapy song, there is not much explanation around yet except for the male vocals that make it a tad different from the regular club number. It reminds me of the vocals in an old, old track called ‘Johnny Joker’(Shweta Shetty’s debut) There is an innocence around it like many other of Mithun’s tracks, an effort which is appreciable for its lack of pretense and i-wanna-capture-the-world intensity.
Teri Tamanna is another in Zubeen’s impressive repertoire of intense and pro-taxi n paanwaala songs. He is one singer who doesn’t need much support from the music, he creates an imagery with his backing aalaps and special somethings done in the post-processing of the song, more so in these days of house n techno n progressive n euro n classical n god-knows-what mixes.
There is not much to write about the lyrics, the track is anything that you might expect overhearing while in a taxi or at a cornershop. One good aspect is the use of KK’s vocals for the verse and Zubeen’s volatile voice for the chorus, a little reminiscent of Ya Ali, but as of the information I have, these tracks are original.
Cheeni Kum
The numbers bear the typical Illaiyaraja imprint, light jazzy orchestration, songs that would not tempt you to buy the album but will stick with you for their ingenuity.
Cheeni Kum: Track Listing
Baatein Hawaein: Shreya Ghoshal, Amitabh Bachchan
Cheeni Kum: Shreya Ghoshal
Jaane Do Na: Shreya Ghoshal
Sooni Sooni(Cheeni Kum Part Two): Vijay Prakash
Baatein:: interesting lines spoken by AB
Impress karne ke liye to log 200 rupaye ke phool dete hain,
Jo 2 ghante mein mar jaate hain
Pata nahi kya express karna chahte hain log phool deke
Impress karne ke liye main aapko Royal Albert Hall ke museum ka music sunane ke leye le ja sakta tha
Par agar music sunte sunte aap bore ho gayi
To logo ko lagega maine aapko rula diya
Ye sunset candlelight moonlight ka concept bhi use kiya ja sakta hai impress karne ke liye
Na to aapko mera chehra dikhage na hi khana
Impress karne ke liye 25 lakh ka haar bhi diya ja sakta hai
Lekin bina price tag ke aapko lagega 25 rupaye ka hai
Aur price tag ke saath de nahi sakte
The songs do not exactly take you by surprise on the first hearing, but they slowly grows on revisits, with its mushy sounds, and amiable vintage melody.
The songs are complemented with Balki’s trademark cheekiness in his portrayals; AB is looking ultracool, tongue-firmly-in-cheek.
Aap Ka Suroor: WHAT?!!
Himesh Reshammiya has been churning albums like hot cakes, call him nasal, call him annoying to the tee, he does his work unshackled by all the noises around. And he does produce some nice works in the midst of the otherwise cacophonous and repetitive loops in name of songs. Aap Ka Suroor is melody based, there are no experimentations to say the least. Some good numbers, in the typical HR genre, are Tera Mera Mila, Tere Bina, Tanhaiyaan & Kya Jeena. Again, not much to write home about, but good listenable melodies nonetheless.
Looking forward to:
Jhoom Barabar Jhoom
Tushar Shukla
Tags: Medium
Anurag Kashyap
Abhay Deol
Dibakar Banerjee
Hansal Mehta
Khalid Mohamed
Kundan Shah
Anish Kuruvilla
Jaideep Verma
Manish Gupta
Navdeep Singh
Bhavani Iyer
D. Santosh
Onir
Ashvin Kumar
Ramu Ramanathan
Sudhir Mishra
Pankaj Advani
Revathy
Saurabh Shukla
Shilpa Shukla
Sujoy Ghosh
Suparn Verma
Santosh Sivan
Shashank Ghosh
Shivajee
Pavan Kaul
Partho Sen-Gupta
Prroshant Naryannan
Sam Langoria
Satish Kasetty
Hey Tushar Bhai!!
Long time!!!
I have been listening to ‘The Train’ none stop since last week and I absolutely love it!!!
Mithoon has finally released a whole album instead of the usual one song here or there.
He proved himself with ‘Bas Ek Pal’ and more recently with ‘Anwar’ which had everyone raving about ‘Maula mere’… so i wasted no time in getting ‘The Train’ which, as a film doesn’t seem to be doing it for me… but as an album??
Wow!!
Its just what i expected from this talented musician, who reminds me of Rahman.
He will definitely go places!!
Well done Mithoon!!
Im so hooked onto it…
The track ‘Beete Lamhein’ is just a fantastic piece of work by Mithoon…even the lounge mix is just so damn good!
Mithoon is definitely doing it for me….even if he hasn’t had any big banners yet, its only a matter of time before they’ll all be queuing up outside his door!
‘Metro’ is….quite likeable.
It’s not doing alot for me.
I mean, i like it, but thats about it.
From what i’ve heard, the songs are shot quite annoyingly in the film.. but i guess we’ll see for ourselves this week!
And i think Yuvan Shanker Raja is losing his touch a bit..well, the last few albums i heard were nothing compared to ‘Nanda’ or even ‘Manadey Thirudi Vittai’!
That was ace!!!
Steve Bhai!!
Ya, its been long since I posted an article. Like they say, it happens when it happens. I think I ll do another similar round up soon since there are other good albums lined up. Fool n final, apart from the names associated with it, has some peppy music. JBJ promo song is looking ultracool.
The Train is awesome! I was pleasantly surprised by Mithoon. I loved Maula Mere(like everyone else) but didn
Hey Tushar!
Mithoon is definitely gonna strike big time!
You can just see it!
Don’t you see the Rahman like quality about him??
Well, I just hope he continues to impress like he has done in the last few albums.
Oh, if your folks dissown you, come to the U.K!!
I’ll let you play music day and night at my place, lol!!:d/
ya, thats true. I heard someone on Naachgaana say the same about him recently.
Might be too early to call him Rahman though. Rahman was Class A even in his those days, Mithoon essentially didnt do that path breaking a work as of now.
and abt comin to UK, i am ready!!
Nice one, Tushar.
I have been listening to Metro soundtrack for the last few weeks and I must say I really like it. Alvida, O Meri Jaan, Baatein Kuch Ankahee Si… Lovely!
I have listened to The Train only a couple of times so far (yes, Steve, I have finally listened to it!;) ) and I like it too. Beete Lamhe and Mausam being my favourites so far.
Thanks for the ‘Hausla-Afzaai’, Monica.
Even me been hooked to Metro, primarily cus there aint many releases in the film segment, last good soundtrack I was hooked to was Delhi Heights.
the promos look compact too
heading to see it day after !!!
Tushar! I was hooked to Delhi Heights too! He he.
Well, in fact… I am still listening to it.
I love Tere Bin and Kitne Der Tak.
Monica, DH was an oddity of a film album that worked for me, I loved all the tracks for their diverse and rich treatment, in particular, I loved Dilli & Kabhi Aana(for its retro-college feel). I associated some songs with my Delhi memories, sadly the movie was a disappointment in doing so, I didnt even see it after the reviews.
Poorly shot videos too….
kitni der tak could have been done so well…such a nice contemporary song….sad sad sad
Rabbi is India’s Bob Dylan, last year I had gone for this Kala ghoda festival in Mumbai where Rabbi performed, i was dunbstruck to hear All along the watch tower by Rabbi, the intro he gav for it still rings in my ears…..it was on something abt a poet who composed songs inside Golden Temple….
I had also seen INdian Ocean perform with Rabbi there together…..
Just feel tat Rabbi isnt getting his worth here…he is a musical genius
The SOngs of CheeniKum are reworks of Ilayarajs’s Tamil Classics from (Mouna Ragam, Mella thirantha kathavu) etc. He has done changes in the orchestration.
Wow!
Finally I get to see people other than myself praisng the whole ‘Delhi Heights’ album!
You have good taste Tushar Bhai..and you do too MOnica….infact i must check out your c.d collection!!
When i made that remark about Mithoon reminding me about an earlier Rahman, what I was trying to say was that back in the early 90’s, Rahman was the only music director who had this whole unique sound about him
And that applies to Mithoon too… the melody, the beats, the whole arrangement of his songs have a very superior feel to them, considering he’s still quite new.
I always get very excited about Rahmans new albums.
Begining to feel the same way about Mithoon too.
Looking forward to your review of JBJ
@kaafir, I still feel Rabbi is more a poet than a singer and pop star he is made to be, when I saw his interview 2 yrs back, I had high hopes, as he mentioned immense rock and 60’s influences, and was a man with dreams. Not much came out, except a million reruns of Bulla(i prefer his other songs – jugni, ishtihar…) on stage shows, marriages, launch shows et al. you are right, he doesnt belong here, in the land of idol worship.
@Pritish, thanks for the insight on Cheeni Kum.
@Steve, thanks, baaas!
@Jwalant, right on, sirji! even I am looking forward to it, I love the promo song.
Beetein lamhe is ammazzzing…..I don’t know what to say except “Dard mein bhi yeh lab muskura jaate hain, beetein lamhe humein jab bhi yaad aate hain….”
I do not like either of the soundtracks. Metro and Train are more of a financial portfolio than a film soundtrack.
Jhoom Barbar Barbar is just shite! Only the three words “Jhoom Barbar Barbar” sounds good. How did SEL mess it up – they had Gulzar writing and great singers singing for them?!
its a awesome song. i liked it very much
hey i love tushars and manicas taste of music
themusic of fool n final is olso very cool
especially yeh duriyaan
i just love the trance in the music they have created
well wo ajnabee and the other songs of train are just awsome
i am olso hooked on the album
so way to go guys
and i hate kailash khers music and especially his new album
uff its irritating lol…………..
sry for monicas spelling it wasnt intentional lol………..:”>
Have been listening to the songs of Metro every day for the five weeks or so. I absolutely love all the songs.
I am surprised nobody has noticed how similar Suhail Kaul sounds to Sonu Nigam.