Saturday, October 1, 2011

Rockstar Music Review

If a movie is titled Rockstar and the music credits go to A R Rahman, one has extremely high expectations. A lot of people say that A R Rahman over the past year or so has not been scoring music that is expected of him. I would agree, however even stuff that is not his best, is way better than the trash the others come up with.

The trailers of Rockstar were out a few weeks back and we were teased with tiny bits and pieces of what promised to be awesome songs. As the weeks leading up to the music release passed by, 'promo versions' of the songs were released. Hopes of millions of Rahman fans surged. And now, at long last, the music has been officially released. The verdict is: FIVE STARS!

If you haven't bought the album yet, please do so. This one deserves your money, don't go to a Pakistani website and download the album, it's disrespecting the genius of Rahman. Anyways, now for the business end of the music review:

The following songs are outstanding in an overall great album:

1. Sadda Haq - In-freaking-credibly awesome! The song has parts that are surreal, it is that good. The lyrics by Irshad Kaamil are farily impressive, the guitar work by Orianthi is phenomenal and Mohit Chauhan is brilliant right through the song. Sure shot winner for Best Song and Best Singer.

2. Kun Fayakun - It's one of those songs, you thank God you were alive to hear. I don't know think any other music director would experiment as much as Rahman has in this song. It has several threads. There's a segment between the 20th second and the 35th second of the song which goes back to the qawallis of the old days, but then the track and the tempo changes completely to what we hear of the song in the promo. The next thread of the song is when the guitar enters the qawalli along with the return of the harmonium, it's pure brilliance. After which the song returns to the chorus thread of Kun Fayakun.
But thats not the end of the song, we get to hear a completely different thread in the song which ends with the most random guitar chord progression which one would never ever expect in a quawalli, but Rahman pulls it off. This thread then beautifully ties back to the main chorus. By the end of the nearly 8 min song, you wish there were more threads. It's more than one song, its several songs in one with the base of a qawalli.

3. Tum Ho - My favourite song of the album, with Mohit Chauhan defining the meaning of longing with the first twenty seconds of the song. A beautiful composition that's surely going to be on my iPod forever.

There are several other songs in the album, which are incredibly good. The final one minute of Kateya Karoon is exceptional. Parts of Sheher Mein are brilliant, I can go on and on about bits and pieces of the other songs which are pure gold, but I won't go into each song explaining which part is awesome. Just get the album and a pair of headphone that can do justice to the music and lose yourself in the most brilliant album of the year. It'll sweep the awards this year.

There was this amazing comment I read on Youtube - "All the dislikes on the songs of Rockstar are by the other music directors"

I can not help but agree, how much they must envy Rahman; sure they can spin-off hit tracks every once in a while, but they do not posses his ability to push the boundaries of music. Thank you God, for giving my generation, A R Rahman!

13 comments:

sahdeV said...

loved your analysis for kun fayakun! very apt!!!

Shakib said...

thank u for ur lovely comment......I also thank God for giving AR RAHMAN to us..

Shakib said...

Love u rahman sir...I thank God for giving us AR RAHMAN.....rockstar is a masterpiece

V S said...

Those that say Rahman did not compose anything good in 2010 , I recommend you listen to the following:

1) Vinnaithandi Varuvaaya (Tamil): One of Rahman's best albums, overall

2) Komaram Puli (Telugu): Has some amazing numbers

3) 127 hours: This time Rahman did deserve to win the best soundtrack at the Oscars, too bad he did not. This album is that good.

Rahman isn't *only* a Hindi film composer , but is it only South Indians who realize that?

MYSTERY OF MY SPIRIT said...

I completely agree with VS on Vinnaithandi Varuvaaya.Each of the song is a gem.

Though I dont understand tamil, it never went off my ipod from the day I uploaded them..

Harshvardhan Pande said...

I do hope my friends from down South do not get upset by the mention of the slight disappointment that ARR fans from the Hindi speaking fraternity felt in 2010. But this review is for a Hindi movie soundtrack of ARR, so the reference still stands.

P.S. - Thanks for the song recommendations of his work in the South in 2010.

shn said...

To all other music directors "HEYY KIDDOS, STOP MAKING NOISE, DADDY IS BACK AT HOME. " :)

Shafeeq said...

Good review...

yeah I agree with VS...
Vinnaithandi Varuvayaa is one of the best of ARR.. its on the same par as RockStar... I was totally addicted to it until RockStar...

Out of this world music... ARR a master musician... hats off

anudeep . said...

a msg to all other bollywood composers.............
Baap,Baap hota,Beta,Beta....

sahdeV said...

Btw, forgot to point out what I found! Khwaja, Piya haji ali and this one, all 3 go B-F#-C#. Coincidence? Or does that scale give these songs necessary trance-devotional effect?!

sahdeV said...

Well I don't know, experts would!

sahdeV said...

err... mistake, mistake! KFK uses G# and not B. :-/ Still working on it, my bad!

shn said...

I dont understand. why people always haunts famous people by just finding the small loopholes.. Below is the truth about Rahman..

1.Rahman never composes music for popularity. or by following trend. whatever he composes becomes a trend..

2.He always experiments with songs, and it depends on script. other music directors always uses their own style to satisfy critics and people and never improves.. Like Pritam and Vishal Shekar..

3.Many of the songs in a rahman album are not easy to sing in live concert or by a normal person. For example HAWA HAWA and PHIR SE UDD CHALA. it is the problem of those who dont know music and. not rahman's !!!! those ho cant sing without preparations hates his songs claiming..bad compositions..??

4.Some of his songs are so simple that it seems easy to sing, but only real musicians know how hard to sing.. eg TUM HO and TUM KO..

Yet.!!! everybody wants rahman to compose as per their expectations. There will be no DIL SE or JODHA AKBAR in future. But Rockstar is definitely the most versatile album in his career so far.

It is like praising Virat Kohli when he hits Half Century and blaming Tendulkar for dismissal at 95 !!!!! we all know that other music directors are nothin compare to Rahman's talent .. still people praises them more than rahman for being the normal composers and for giving popular music..