Milliblog Weeklies – India’s only multilingual, weekly new music playlist.
Week 162: On Spotify | On YouTube
11 songs this week. YouTube has all 11, while Spotify is missing Thaikkudam Bridge’s new medley single.
Yaathi Yaathi – Abhishek CS (Tamil/Indipop): Ashwin Kumar seems to be the Tamil equivalent of Mouni Roy, featuring in pop single after pop single with alarming consistency and all of them raking in massive views on YouTube (Unakkena Naan/Shades of Kadhal – December 2019, Kannam Veesi – January 2020, Kutty Pattas – March 2021, Criminal Crush – April 2021, Adipoli – August 2021), and now this! But, if I look at all these songs (none of them featured in Milliblog Weeklies), this is the first time one of them is part of this list. Musically, I wasn’t entirely convinced or impressed with them, though I understand why they work with others – reasonably good/catchy music to showcase Ashwin’s prowess. But Yaathi seems to be the first song, in my view, to have a really coherent and good musical layer – Abhishek’s tune could have easily been in a Sivakarthikeyan big-budget movie.
Backyard Sessions (Ilayaraja) – Thaikkudam Bridge (Tamil): The band mixes two of Raja’s iconic songs that are a decade apart (1981 – 1991). The mix seemed incomplete and too short for my comfort, but whatever they do pick and mix sounds magical given how beautiful the original songs themselves are. The singers – Christin Jos Vadasseril and Vipinlal C K do a terrific job, accentuating the melodies of the originals as if they are brittle artefacts that may break if mishandled!
Gandharva Lokala – Pelli SandaD (M M Keeravani) – Telugu: Keeravani recreates the quintessential K Raghavendra Rao song template (while the video stops short of rolling fresh fruits on the heroine’s belly; or it is probably present in the full video) musically. It’s a lovely throwback, and the voices of Hemachandra and Ramya Behara build on that beautifully.
Srivalli – Pushpa (Devi Sri Prasad) – Telugu: DSP does it again! If the first single from the film was a floor-stomper, this one is such a wonderful contrast – a lush melody that makes its tune an earworm almost instantly. He uses Manonmani’s Sarangi in such a way that it becomes a signature sound. Sid Sriram’s choice is brilliant – the small variations he brings to the same line (Choope Bangaaramaayane) are lovely!
Hey Thikamaka & Jagadale Raani – Maha Samudram (Chaitan Bharadwaj) – Telugu: Chaitan’s music for the movie is shades ahead of his first outing with the director, Ajay Bhupathi (RX100). Like the director’s expanded scope and canvas, Chaitan’s music too offers a significantly wider soundscape. Haricharan and Nutana Mohan prop Hey Thikamaka’s lilting melody perfectly, while Hemachandra and Chaitan himself handle the 80s style friendship anthem fabulously.
Gicchi Gili Gili – Rathnan Prapancha (Ajaneesh Loknath) – Kannada: Ajaneesh builds his tune around the ‘Gicchi Gili Gili’ hook and that crow-like sound – even though that sounded like a gimmick to me in the beginning, he goes on to layer the main melody very well on top. The result is a catchy song that seems like a very sophisticated version of a Govinda tapori song, but in Kannada. And because of that, Puneeth Rajkumar’s vocals are a great match for the tune!
Higher Power, Humankind, People of the Pride & My Universe – Music of The Spheres (Coldplay) – International: If Higher Power sounded like Coldplay channeling their inner Weeknd, that’s because of the producer – Max Martin, who also Blinding Lights. But it does sound great, framing Chris in a sound I usually do not associate with. Humankind is a great listen given how familiar it is within the Coldplay soundscape, though the lyrics are cringeworthy, offering pithy insights like we are called ‘humankind’ because we are kind! People of the Pride too is a stupendous listen even as it sounds less like Coldplay (barring Chris’s voice) and more of a Depeche Mode or Muse sound. And My Universe is, as expected, sugary-sweet boyband goodness featuring BTS and Coldplay – predictable in every way, sound-wise, hooks-wise, and appeal-wise.
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