Top Tracks: Neralaagi, Dhruvataare, Sarala Swaragala, Nee Nanna, Manavi Maadi
It’s never too late to let others know about delightful music, and Neralaagi deserves a place in the list of the most beautiful independent music albums I have heard till now. Wow, what an all round treat this! Neralaagi (meaning Shade for someone) is a Kannada album composed by Abhishek S N. Almost all the songs are written by Abhishek himself and the tracks are arranged by Swapnil Digde.
This is coming from a person who understands only basic kannada (my mother-tongue is Marathi) and not poetic, but Music has no language! I can’t stop playing songs from this album in loop over the past one month now!
The album has total 9 tracks and the best thing is all the tracks are way different from each other. I don’t remember listening to a multi-genre album before (Shankar Mahadevan and Javed Akhtar had an album which had 9 songs dedicated to 9 different emotions, but not different genre!). Ranging from semi classical to Rock to Jazz to Soft Romantic and what not!
1. Sarala Swaragala – Sadhana Sargam
A beautiful semi-classical song sung by ace singer Sadhana Sargam. Starting with beautiful Sarod, and later mixing it up with light synth with rhythm. Sarod plays for a relatively longer time, and that’s the real beauty. It sets up the environment perfectly before Sadhana starts singing. The tune is really peaceful and Sadhana has sung this really well! She has touched higher notes with so much ease! The raaz ki baat is Abhishek and Swapnil allowed me to be present for the studio recording and I got the chance to hear Sadhana Saragam record this song. And I must tell you, she has added so many harakats herself and this has added life to the song! The arrangement of the song is top class!
2. Neralaagi – Abhishek S N, Inchara Nagesh
This is the title track and one of my most favourites from this album! A lovely romantic track starting with magical flute… making it more romantic! Once you listen to this song, I bet you will keep humming this for days to come! Use of accoustic guitar with light tabla in the rhythm… just superb. Abhishek’s singing is as good as his composition! Flute… flute… flute… classy flute! Listen to this track now !!!
3. Dhruvataare – Charan Raj, Inchara Nagesh, Pankaja Menon
This is THE BEST track of this album. I just loved the arrangement of this track. This song takes me to a different world… a dreamy world and I feel happy and peaceful. Charan Raj’s singing is incredible and the female duo complements him well. Listen to the bass of the track.. and that’s why I tell my friends to listen to songs on good headphones. You shouldn’t miss the best part of the track ! Yes, I just loved the bass! Lyrics are way too beautifully written!
Here’s the promo of dhruvataare song:
4. Muppu aago munna – Abhishek S N, Niranjan
This is folk kinda song, total fun! You just feel like dancing to the song! I hadn’t really liked it for the first time, but this is really a good one!
5. Kanasondu Kaadide – Abhishek S N
This is rock song. Although there is nothing bad about it, I am not addicted to the song. Listen and decide it yourself ! Nicely sung by Abhishek. Electric guitar adds the rock feel, but it has not been used too well.
6. Prathikshana – Jude Lazzaro
An English track in a Kannada album. This is a light, and feel happy track but not on my playlist.
7. Nee Nanna – Abhishek S N, Aishwarya Majumdar
This is another sweet song. The tune is catchy and yes, one of the best songs of this album! Remember Aishwarya Majumdar? Well, she was the winner of Amul Star Voice of India. Listening to a song sung by her for the first time, and she is good ! Saxophone adds the relaxing effect to the song…
8. Manavi Maadi – Shashank Sheshagiri
Beautiful track! Especially the use of Saarangi and Santoor is fantastic! It totally depicts the restless feeling.
9. Neralaagi (live) – Abhishek S N
We can call this one unplugged version of the title track. Nice use of acoustic guitar! I don’t love it as much as I love the original, but still, this one is nice to listen to at times…
Overall, Neralaagi is simply breeze of freshness. After so many days, we are getting to listen to a multi genre independent album! Great work by Abhishek S N (composing) and Swapnil Digde (Arranging and Programming) ! I just hope we get more of such albums now!
Rating: 4/5
