Apr 12, 2005 07:36 AM
2090 Views
(Updated Apr 12, 2005 07:56 AM)
Well, finally the express has arrived the town. This is the first release of Kamal's own audio company Raajkamal Audios. Kamal always went/go to IR for his home productions except once. Their last combination was 'Virumaandi' which had a few good songs.
This Xpress theme is quite different and somewhat looks like an urban setup based comedy flick. So has IR delivered the needed quality of songs for this movie? Yes and No. There are five tracks in the album. All of them have jazz flavour and are penned by Vaali.
- poo pooththathu - Sonu nigam, Shreya Goshal and Shaan. A beautiful melody with perfect orchestration. The song starts with a kid, Kamal and some female speaking, after that part the song begins with typical IR style Trumpet notes and acoustic drumming. In the first interlude, there comes a beautiful piece with piano and acoustic drum, wow great stuff. In the charanams, sax has been used as accompanying instrument which is beautiful too.
Although Sonu nigam has done a decent job, he irritates when ''uravathan varumaiyai unarnthalum'' comes in the second charanam. Shreya is a good choice again. This song is one of the best melodies in recent times. I pray Kamal does not spoil this song as he did in onna vida in Virumaandi. 5/5
ila re - Kamalhasan, Sonu nigam, Shaan, Sunithi Chauhan, Shreya Goshal. 'yele nee yettippo' chorus part is catchy and comes throughout the song. In the first interlude, the fast beat reminds me of 'potta padiyuthu' from Satya. In the second interlude, there is this female voice explaining about their doing spoils the mood. Jazz effects are there and so is the synth stuff. An intro song with good pieces in a few places - 3.5/5
kurangu kaiyil maalai - Kamalhasan, Sonu nigam, Tippu, Sunithi Chauhan. The song starts just like a jazz instrumental and turns out to a tamil song slowly. There are two versions available on the net. The cassette has only Sonu nigam version, but I liked the other one that has Tippu singing kurangu kailyil maalai.
After the pallavi, the interlude begins with female chorus and mystery kind of music in the background. In the second interlude, there comes trumpet with Jazzy effect. The beat changes in the song quite a few times so this should be a situational song and will be more appropriate to enjoy it with visuals. The movie is based on an attempt to kidnap somebody and I guess this song will be like peru vachchalum in Michael mathana kamarajan. Kamal's singing reminds me of his raman song in Hey Ram though. 3.5/5.
Monkey Chatter - Live orchestra (Budapest). As the name suggests, the theme is performed by Budapest symphony orchestra. There are couple of places that remind you of ''Nothing but wind'' track. An enjoyable music if you like background scores. 3.5/5
Vande Madharam - Chorus. Not a full song but easily forgettable one except the ending instrumental piece. 1/5.
+ves:
I have always this opinion that IR is still the king when comes to using acoustic instruments. I was not happy when he too turned to synth stuff. It is really good to see him back with acoustic instruments in this album. Also he has taken care of recording quality. You can sense it in the poo pooththathu song itself. I read that he has used Grammy winning sound engineer for his TIS album. I assume that changed his mindset to go for good recording. I wish he sticks with acoustic instruments with good recording and comes up with brilliant albums in future.
-ves:
This album has conversations in two songs. It is a novel thing when using the technique once in a while like in Chittukuruvi and Guna songs. It becomes irritating doing it very often and including them in the albums. I hope IR stops this soon.
Overall a different album from the current tfm albums. If you like something different, you may like it.
