Wake Up Sid starts off frighteningly like the typical feel-good-but-now-getting-jaded SEL-KJo fare before it takes a Rock On-ish turn in the title line. And then on its a nice 3 odd minutes coming out in the ever-dependable Shankar Mahadevan’s voice. The remix version however went a bit too fast for my liking. Next up is some country styled music with Kya Karoon, Clinton Cerejo absolutely magnificent on the vocals, in places reminding me of Raman Mahadevan. Another pleasant track, though it does bear mild resemblances to Yeh Aaj Kya Ho Gaya from Luck By Chance. The instrument in the interlude didnt sound like an actual harmonica by the way. Aaj Hi Zindagi is another nicely arranged serene track, Shankar getting to mildly exercise his classical side on the vocals. He especially sounds resplendent on the higher notes. For that matter Shankar Mahadevan always excels when it comes to soaring vocals!! Enter guest composer Amit Trivedi who pulls off a blinder with his sole composition for the movie called Iktara. Rendered superbly by Sufi singer Kavita Seth and lyricist Amitabh Bhattacharya, this one expertly packages Kavita’s classical rendition in a modern setting, the highlight being the guitars. If the name Kavita Seth doesn’t ring a bell, advise you to please listen to the absolutely haunting number from Gangster called Mujhe Mat Roko. Amitabh Bhattacharya is bound have more recall, having penned the lyrics of 99 and more importantly, Dev D. SEL return for the last track which is another delightful composition a la Rock On. This one sees alongside Shankar Mahadevan the veteran rock singer Uday Benegal. He was last seen with Alms For Shanti, a band he founded with his guitarist from Indus Creed days, Jayesh Gandhi (who incidentally is into movies himself, having sung for many movies and scored for movies like Manorama Six Feet Under). Hopefully this is a start and we will get to hear more of Uday. By the way you can know more about and listen to some excellent music from Alms For Shanti here.
Its refreshing to see SEL take a diversion from their usual route when it comes to movies from the Karan Johar household. And Amit Trivedi, come out with your next full soundtrack soon please!!

Dialogue mix has funny Murugun repartees from the movie set to the backdrop of a musical melange featuring the trademark Tamil kuthu beats for most part. Just the kind of number you would look to start off in a comedy flick. Right from the start of the song the dialogues will have you in splits! Incidentally most of the dialogues in the song feature in the trailer as well. So for a visual impact of what you hear in this song just scroll down. Coming to the title song, Raghu Dixit and Ranina Reddy sing this sole composition of Raghu from the film (Others are all by Sagar Desai). Another jolly song with slight bubblegum dance elements, this one features some of Quick Gun’s dialogues from the Channel V days like “Mothalle Sambar, Apparama Nee” (Scroll down for videos). Raghu Dixit handles his dual role of singer and MD neatly indeed with this short and sweet number, the classical twist in the first interlude particularly nice. Next up is Mind It. Wonder why it was called Tamil Bhangra, seeing that apart from idli, appam and sambar I didn’t find any Tamil in it. Apart from that everything is perfect about this song, starting from Mika’s exuberant rendition to the idli appam-verse to the carnatic ending on veena. This song is going to grow on you for sure, as it has on me as I am writing this review! The remix spoils the fun element however. Coming to Kyun Keeda Hai Aapko, Sagar Desai presents a modern day Chatur Naar sung flawlessly by Vijay Prakash. That he can deliver classical songs he has proven in the past with songs like Man Mohini in Yuvvraaj, but the comical twist he brings to this one with that deliberate sluggishness et al, is just awesome. Sagar gives a jazz orchestration to this one making the experience all the more delightful. And Ankur Tewari’s lyrics are the icing on the cake. Ideal candidate for the best track of the album. And I couldn’t help but make a mention of this, the sargam in the second interlude is simply brilliant! Ek Tha Murugun is reminiscent of the Wild West in every way except the lyrics, which make a travesty of the hero. This song alone has Shellee penning the lyrics and Vijay Prakash sings this one as well to good effect. Vijay Prakash comes a third time to deliver the retro-sounding Chat Mangni Lover. The lyrics again are incredibly funny, Vijay giving the right intonations to accentuate the funniness. There are two remixes of this song. First one called Space Goddess works in the remixers Deep and DJ Chandu’s favour. This one has Pratichee Mohapatra joining Vijay plus some dream elements, bringing the song to a more recent time than the original. The second version called Aunties On the Dance Floor, isn’t that well done, just processing the vocals. A fourth entry by Vijay Prakash has him crooning Kuchi Kuchi Twist with Hamsika Iyer, both with a strong Southie accent. And its in this song’s remix, called Ragamuffin mix, where the remixers get their act totally right. Sout Dandy Squad’s Tamil rap is just perfect for this one. To know more about Sout Dandy Squad by the way click here. It is in the last song, Naam Mera Mango Dolly, however that Sagar Desai falters slightly. With a catchy title the jazzy cabaret number starts well, Geeta John splendid on the vocals. But somewhere in the middle monotony sets in. But 7/8 is good enough! I never expected such an engrossing soundtrack from a Bollywood comedy flick of all things! Sagar Desai, Raghu Dixit, Ankur Tewari, I bow to you!! After his thoroughly impressive scores in both Straight and QGM, I am going to be on the lookout for Sagar Desai’s next.
Below are the trailer of the movie and some videos of the yesteryear Channel V version of Quick Gun Murugun, which was again Shashanka Ghosh’s creation.

On our 63rd Independence Day, we decided to pay a musical tribute by putting down our list of the ten best patriotic songs of all time, both film and non-film music.  This list comprises of we felt were the best. Your opinions would vary, you may feel we have missed out some prominent song, so comments are most welcome! Here are the ten songs in their chronological order (to safely avoid the daunting task of deciding the best among these ten!!)

Vande Mataram – Anand Math (1952)
The film version of the 1882 novel by Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay which incidentally featured the national song for the first time. Though many versions of the song have hence appeared (the most popularly used one being the one set in Desh Raag), this tune by Hemant Kumar effectively captures the environment when the song was written, the strife, the struggle, the patriotic fervour et al. And who better to render the song than Lata Mangeshkar!!

Aye Mere Watan Ke Logon (1963)
Kavi Pradeep has done a lot of patriotic songs in his lifetime but this shall invariably be his best remembered one. Add to that C Ramachandra’s arrangement and Lata Mangeshkar’s magical voice, and what you get is a song that will give you a lump in your throat just about every time you listen to it. If this song doesn’t make you stand up and salute our brave soldiers, nothing else ever will!!

Kar Chale Hum Fida – Haqeeqat (1964)
Again a tribute to the Indian soldiers set in the background of the Sino-Indian war, this one had another prolific set of artists in Mohammad Rafi, Madan Mohan and Kaifi Azmi. Though not as effective as Aye Mere Watan, Rafi’s singing and the picturization of the song are more than enough to qualify Kar Chale into our top ten.

Mile Sur Mera Tumhara (1988)
A gem of a tune set to raag Sindhu Bhairavi by Louis Banks(or is it Ashok Patki?) and written by Azgar Khan. This song enters the list not only for the quality of the song but also the nostalgic feeling it brings with it, the good old days of DD! The idea of national integration by bringing in artists and featuring music from all parts of the country was intriguing, as well as endearing.

Bharat Humko – Roja (1992)
Roja was a landmark movie in Indian music history just by it marking the entry of AR Rahman. All songs in the movie were memorable and Bharat Humko was especially so due to its difference in orchestration. The transition from the soft crooning by Hariharan with sparse instrumental backing to the heavily orchestrated chorus part is one hair-raising experience, even today!

Vande Mataram – Saza-e-Kala Pani (1996)
The lyrics different from the actual Vande Mataram this song was set to tune by Ilayaraja in his trademark style. This song too employs the orchestral chorus effect to convey the heroism and the environment of struggle. And if you encounter this song as part of watching the movie, the effect is bound to be quite overwhelming.

Revival – Vande Mataram (1997)
While a lot of hubbub was raised over Maa Tujhe Salaam, not many people at that time noticed this superb version of the national song in the same album. Even today I doubt if all people who have heard of Maa Tujhe Salaam would have listened to Missing. Arranged in a way that only Rahman can, the sax&guitar-laden interludes are just mindblowing! And the female voices (I have only so far managed to identify Anuradha Sriram) do a perfect job of delivering it. My hunch is that the percussion heard in the second interlude doesnt actually come from a percussion instrument, rather some sort of a guitar.

Zindagi Maut Na Ban Jaaye – Sarfarosh (1999)
I truly consider this soul-stirring song the greatest contribution of Jatin-Lalit to Bollywood! The arrangement is brilliant, and Sonu Nigam and Roop Kumar Rathod spot on in their singing.

Jana Gana Mana (2000)
Following up to Vande Mataram again as a venture with BharatBala, this album featured renditions of the National anthem by over 35 different artists from all over India, both instrumentalists and vocalists. While each of the versions featured in this album are brilliant in their own right, to be fair to everyone I am providing here the video merging the collective instrumental and the collective vocal versions.

Sarfaroshi Ki Tamanna – The Legend of Bhagat Singh (2002)
It not that we haven’t noticed that this is the fourth Rahman song in this ten-song list. Its just that the man has given us so much over these 17-odd years that it is impossible not to find a handful of brilliant compositions in almost every genre! Coming back to this song, a slow classical-oriented melody with minimal instrumentation, the song was sung by the dream duo of Hariharan and Sonu. The video we provide however has Sonu doing a solo.

We wish all our readers a very happy Independence Day.

We start off with a song that is famous as the face of the US Civil Rights Movement, We Shall Overcome. As is the case with most folk songs, the origins of this song are also majorly murky. Originating from the gospel traditions of both blacks and whites in the late 1800s, the first appearance of We Will Overcome in print was in 1901 and is attributed to Rev. Charles Tindley of Philadelphia, a man credited to composing over 50 hymns and lyrics. A more recent development of the song began in 1946 when Lucille Simmons, on strike against the American Tobacco Company, sang a slow version of We Will Overcome on a picket line. From here it passed on to folk singer Pete Seeger, famous as founder of The Almanac Singers and later The Weavers. Pete claims to have changed the lyric from We Will to We Shall, and also added some other verses.

Subsequently the song was taken up as the anthem of the Civil Rights Movement. Another folk singer, Joan Baez, helped bring the song to a wider audience through her participation in marches and most importantly the 1969 Woodstock festival (The same Joan Baez whose rendition of Blowin’ In The Wind features in Forrest Gump). Lyndon Johnson used the phrase in his address of Congress on March 15, 1965 after attacks on Civil Rights activists. Martin Luther King Jr. used the phrase in his last speech before assassination. In India the song or rather the tune gained mileage when Hum Honge Kaamyaab, a Hindi translation of the song by renowned poet Girija Kumar Mathur became popular, particularly in schools. School-goers from the 80s would invariably have sung this song on some occasion or the other! The song also started making lot of appearances in popular culture. One prominent instance that I can recollect is the cult comedy Jaane Bhi Do Yaaro. A Bengali translation was also made, by Bengali folk singer Hemanga Biswas and later re-recorded by Bhupen Hazarika, by the name Amra Karbo Joy. More recently in 2006, Bruce Springsteen released an album We Shall Overcome: The Seeger Sessions which featured his version of the song among other 14 songs by Pete Seeger. The album also notched up that year’s Grammy for the Best Traditional Folk Album.

One might think that over time the song is slowly being forgotten, but that is hardly the case as can be seen from the way banners featuring “We Have Overcome” were raised when Obama got elected. There could hardly have been an expression better describing such a historic occasion! Over the years, We Shall Overcome, in short, has remained just that – a non-belligerent expression of suffering and determination. Check out the videos below and I am sure you would find the song still capable of giving you that feeling of elation and inspiration. And on the eve of the Independence Day, that is indeed one feeling that you should be having.

We are glad to present before you our new section “A Song A Day“. This is our way of paying tribute to some great songs of yore. Mostly international but also occasionally Indian, the songs shall be spread across genres. A brief writeup on the song, its history, and an audio/video clip as far as we can manage. So watch this space for some great songs!

Thanking you all the readers for your continued support and encouragement.

Team MusicAloud
Do let us know about your suggestion through comments
You could also write to us at [email protected] .

The best track of the album is the Robert Miles-ish Yaadein, rendered by KK. Being right down his alley, KK delivers it to perfection. More house music follows with Josh Josh, Sunidhi and Kunal Ganjawala doing their part well. Akriti Kakkar enters with Jashn Jashn, another techno-entrenched song. The song isn’t as impressive as the previous ones; I especially found the starting lines and the rap in the interlude annoying. The song scores mainly owing to Akriti’s superior singing. No such reprieve for Kunal Ganjawala’s Advocat De Satan however. The orchestral arrangement only succeeds in making the song a noisy affair. Monty Sharma however makes up for the track with Zindagi, a superb melody sung by Kunal and Shreya Ghoshal. The starting piano sequence is brilliant. Actually the sequence is so good that the rest of the song sounds slightly dull in comparison (only in comparison with that particular sequence mind you). Actually it would have been great if Monty had a full-fledged piano composition as a follow-up on that sequence alone. Nice parting shot this song nevertheless!
Monty Sharma has made a decent comeback in Fox, after a lacklustre performance in Chamku.

Except for slight rock elements sprinkled here and there (the drums in the background and a guitar solo in the second interlude), Maula is a pure sufi devotional song, faintly resembling Kailasa’s Dilruba. Master Salim is impeccable on the vocals, and this time I am almost sure it is Salim Shehzada (Wonder why the change to “master” Salim though). A feel good song overall. I dont understand why the hell anyone would want to remix this sort of a song! As it happens there is a remix done by Abhimanyu Singh, making a mess of it. Next up is Pyaar Ki Parsayee, a ghazal sung by Hariharan and Sadhna Sargam. Listening to a ghazal from Hariharan is always a delight! So is this one, Sadhna doing an equally superb job. And the composition is classy. Equally impressive is the instrumental version, Raeess quite appropriately choosing the flute to lead the proceedings. The MD then chooses to go on a totally different track with the peppy Har Ek Lamha. The result this time too is impressive, helped on its way by the flawless vocals of Javed Ali and Sunidhi Chauhan. The remix this time, done by Shailesh Suvama, is nicely done.
A soundtrack comprising of just three tunes, covering three different genres beautifully. Excellent debut by Raeess Jamal Khan (Assuming it is his debut! I couldn’t find any info pointing to the contrary).

Dead By Sunrise, the solo side project of Linkin Park vocalist Chester Bennington with Julien-K, has finally been announced the completion of their debut album which is titled Out of Ashes and is slated for release in October this year. This puts an end to the three year wait of the fans, the band initially supposed to debut in 2006. Chester had to postpone the release then owing to commitments to Linkin Park. The band was initially called Snow White Tan, an apparent nod to David Bowie’s Ziggy Stardust. Though the band hasn’t come out officially with any single from the album, they have been performing Out of Ashes songs at different shows. We provide below a few interview snippets with Chester and fan videos from performances by DBS. The songs are great, I especially liked My Suffering. Having said that I could discern a Linkin Park stamp on a few songs. (For instance, Walking In Circles reminded me slightly of Crawling.) Anyways, listen and decide for yourself.

Dead By Sunrise – Album Trailer

Dead By Sunrise – The Beginning

The seventh studio album of the American boy band shall hit the stands this October. This is Us shall be the second album BSB releases since the departure of Kevin Richardson, the first one being Unbreakable in 2007. While Unbreakable was a rather forgetful affair in terms of commercial success, BSB stand an advantage this time of having Max Martin, the man responsible for many of their major hits, back in the camp. He was incidentally not part of Unbreakable. The band also have RedOne (the man behind Lady Gaga’s 2008 chartbusters Just Dance and Poker Face) who has supposedly done three songs for them. Add to all this a few more collaborators like T-Pain, Claude Kelly etc., and things definitely look to be on BSB’s side this time. The first single of the album, Straight Through My Heart, which was out last week, is a definite hit in any case. So will Backstreet Boys get it goin’ on this time? Lets wait and see. In the meantime here is Straight Through My Heart for you.

Director: Vishal Bharadwaj
Producer: Ronnie Screwvala
Music Director: Vishal Bharadwaj
Lyricist: Gulzar
Label: T-Series
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