Wake Up S!d — Music review
Recently John Hughes passed away who has made some of the finest coming of age films of all time like “Sixteen Candles” , “The Breakfast Club” and “Ferris Beuller’s Day Off”. He portrayed the young teenagers in a very real and comic way . His films are still relevant as they were 25 years ago and are also some of my favourites . Now we have Ayan Mukerji from Dharma Productions who is also trying his hand on the same genre . What was remarkable in Hughes’ films was that they were very simple and portrayed whatever that they wanted in a very simple manner . The same simplicity is what I got to observe in this album too . The music here is by Shankar Ehsaan Loy (K Jo’s favourite) and lyrics are also by Javed Akhtar (another favourite) . In past the trio and the lyrical genius have done wonders and the same is expected from them every time they come together . I am very very happy to see a change in Dharma Productions who is now focusing on making a bit different films than usual lavish films that they are associated with .
The first song on the album is the title track which has vocals by Shankar himself . The track has some nice guitar pieces in it which is a feature that has been maintained throughout the album .
I love the way song goes from a soft slow mode to a rock mode and that too in a nice way and not an abrupt way . The music on the entire album for that matter seems to be an extension to Rock On!! Album but in my view it is not . This one has more of a soft rock feel in most of the songs on the album . Well , the lyrics on this one are also nice and Javed sir has done a good job as usual . The song introduces Sid and his character in the film in a nice way . The film seems to be a bit similar to Lakshya , the music and lyrics of which were by the same team . Though the songs here are very different and even lyrics are different . The backing vocals in this song by Loy Mendonsa are also nice . Overall , its a good track to begin the album with and has also done full justice to the title of the film .
Next comes , Kya Karoon? , by Clinton Cerejo which has a nice fresh feel . I always like the sound of harmonica because it very well captures the “easy going happy go lucky ” feel and it has been used in this track very nicely . A nice slow track which has good lyrics and “kya karu” seems to be catchy. NICE is a word that I’ll be using very much throughout the review because it is a word that very well summarizes the album . And Nice doesn’t mean that it is not very good . It is great but in a very subtle way that will probably make you happy . Clinton has provided the song that fresh young feel that was required through his vocals and he is nicely supported by Dominique and Loy . In all its a nice 
song that would look great along with the story in the film . It is almost like those songs that one usually hears in background in many Hollywood films . The lyrics capture the feelings of youth in a nice way throughout the album and also in this song .
“Aaj Kal Zindagi” comes next which reminded me a bit of “Kaisi Hai Ye Rut” from Dil Chahta Hai . The beats in this one are similar to that one . That one was a beautiful track sung by Srinivas who did a great job . This one has vocals by Shankar himself who also as usual has done a great job . This one is somewhat of a feel good inspirational song which has a good melody and lyrics . One nice thing that I observed is that most of the tracks on the album are short and only around 4 minutes long . This in my view is ideal length for any song and songs like these don’t even hinder the pace of the film and keep it going . I hope the film is also short and concise like the songs with no unnecessary elongation .
Then comes probably the best track on the album but there is a catch , this one has been composed by Amit Trivedi .Though this song is by a different composer it still doesn’t stand out and has maintained the spirit of the album and is of the same league as others and Amit needs to be complimented for that . It is different than others but has the same quality of simplicity in it too . Lyrics wise also this song is the best on the entire album and Jaaved sir has done a fabulous job on this track . The only song which has female vocals and Kavita Seth has done a great job here . She has given it a nice classical feel along with Amitabh Bhattacharya . Both of them have a nice fresh voice quality which goes along with the theme of the soundtrack . Amit Trivedi is definately a find and he is proving that with his work . He has already proved himself in Aamir and Dev-D but here he has stood along with an already established trio of music directors and shown that he is no less and done a good job . Though the music is good and soulful but the strongest point of the song are its lyrics and singing . Full marks to Kavita for her nice Classical Sufiana singing . I would love to hear a bit more of her . Javed sir has also very nicely used the word “iktara”…. I am a bit crazy i guess but i would have loved to see this picturised in a bit of rain and also a bit dark , in monsoons, as if time has stopped .
Then at last comes “Life is Crazy”, again by Shankar who has been supported by Uday Benegal .All of the songs on the album talk about life in general and its surprising but there is no love song on the entire album . This one is also talks about life and its different elements of happiness . It also calls it crazy and both the singers do that in a stylish way . This song also has a soft rock kinda feel and has a nice pacyrhythm .
One complaint that I have against Shankar is that he is now singing just too many songs on his albums . This one has 4 songs by them(SEL) out of which shankar features on 3 of them . No doubt he is a fabulous singer but he should rather sing a few songs else the audience would get a bit bored with him and all the songs on his album would sound the same .
Lastly comes a remix version of the title track which is also nice and would work more than the original one among the masses . This one has been titled as “Club Mix” and it would work in clubs and discs for sure . The sound of ticking clock in the bgining sounds good , even in the original one . This one is a more faster version and sounds like those songs by teenage bands in the west .
Overall , its a very NICE and different soundtrack and its strength lies in its simplicity .There are no unnecessary remix versions and most songs are of appropriate length .SEL and Javed Sir have done a good job once again . I am looking forward to this film now even more than before I was . Lets hope the film also has something good in store . Its good that UTV has this film with them , they’ll do a good job with publicity . One thing UTV is doing great is that it is bringing the commercial and off beat film makers in the same domain and a bit closer than before .
Album Rating : Four out of Five ; Pretty fresh and definately worth listening .
Tags: Ayan Mukerji, dharma productions, Javed Akhtar, Karan Johar, Music, Shankar Ehsaan and Loy, UTV, Wake Up Sid Music Review
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
i agree…Iktara is the best song in the album…
NICE review
thanks ..
which song did you like ??
Thanks for the info on iktara. Amitabh Bhattacharya is the guy who wrote the lyrics of Dev D and in one of the interviews he says he is actually a singer not lyrics writer. That was the song I loved the most.
Though Amitabh has very less part in the song … but even i loved his small part …
uday benegal? of indus creed??
not sure bro
yep… of Indus Creed and Alms for Shanti..
Great to find a hindi soundtrack with no bells and whistles, no? The lazy guitars, easy singing and unhurried pace of the songs makes it, like you said, a nice listen. I am smiling throughout the album.
Right now, I’d say ‘Kya Karoon?’ is my favourite. I am loving the way it starts off; the guitar and the finger snapping. Even the drums come up without a roll or anything. Blissfully ‘nice’.
yep .. and even i get a smile when i listen to them
.. nice chilled out tracks and whats amazing is that all the songs from the album have that quality … it is this consistancy that lead me to give it such a high rating…they’ve not tried anything fancy …no bhangra track , thank god! and neither is there any disco track as such ..such a relief .. I like all the songs from the album even the finger snapping 
… thanks n cheers !!
nice work by both SEL and amith…a nice feel good album..and yeah, 5 more points for not having a love song and stupid remixes
Seems like a collector’s album, I will get it today.
Thanks guys for all the input & info.
very nice n chilled out album…. iktara is my favorite track from the movie… kavita seth’s voice is amazing… did anyone know any other track sung by her…???
I tried to look her up on the net and this is her official website : http://www.kavitaseth.com/ on which there is info about her and all her past work .. i am not sure but i think its her only ..
Yes, this is the same Kavita as mentioned in the Web site.
@Roushan: Kavita has also lent her voice to Mujhe Mat Roko from Gangster and has also recorded and composed 3 songs for Yeh Mera India. Kavita has a great voice and she’s also very down to earth.
loved that song from gangster. still listen to it at times. thanks for the info.
yep she does seem to be nice .. reminds a bit of Shubha Mudgal..not in terms of voice but in terms of Persona
… did you like the music .. ???
Bullshit capitalist music
You are being ‘nice’ with this album!! :P
Ruslaan is a terrific little gem that’s out there. Give it a try!
thanx Tejas for both , the comment and Ruslaan ..liked ‘em both .. cheers
More I listened to this album, and yes I did venture that far, more I feel ‘The Graduate’ touch to it. At places they want to give the album a Simon & Garfunkle feel. Even the story of the movies looks on the same line. Does anyone else feel the same specially about the ‘Kya Karoon’ song?
do you still think that I’ve been too nice with this album or is fine ???
I don’t know. It’s not that I like the songs tremendously or anything yet. But I like to watch them on screen. Then the music and the visuals both seem to gel perfectly, with the retro bohemian colors of the picture and the retro sound.