Listening to an album of A R Rahman for the first time – There is nothing else that can match the excitement felt at that moment. [image: :)] And as usual, Rahman doesn't disappoint you this time too. All the songs are good. But, something seems to be missing in most of the songs. Sometimes on listening to a song for the first time, you get hooked to it instantly and would not want to move on to the next song at all. There seems to be no song that fits into this category even after listening to all the songs continuously for more than 7 hours now. So I guess it's going to take quite some time for me to start liking the songs of ATM in the way I like the songs of Rahman.
*kaeLaamal* I liked the song till Sriram Parthasarathy sings the line *un paerum kokilam *. The moment the next line, Saindhavi singing *kokilam kokilam*, followed, I realized this is going to be one song that wouldn't feature in the list of my favourites for a long time. Music phrases or rather, the tunes that tend to sound a bit serious have never been my cup of tea. There is nothing extraordinary about the music of the charanams as well. In fact, the tune of the starting lines of the charanams starting with *inimael inimael, kaNNai kaNNai* is pretty ordinary. I liked the way the first charanam ends with *irangi vara padigaLum undu* followed by *kaeLaamal*. As for the singers, I liked Sriram's singing more than Saindhavi's. Maybe I should have stopped dissecting the song while I was listening to it. Then I might have liked it better. *ella pugazhum* This is another ordinary song. Despite Rahman himself singing this song, but for the opening lines of the song, I didn't find anything special in this song. That too I find many parts of the song quite boring. To mention a few, the lines *naaLai naaLai naaLai endru inRai izhakkaathe* and the last line sung by Rahman. For quite some time to come, I think I will just press the forward button as soon as the song starts playing.* * *maduraikku* A typical Tamil folk song. Again not able to find anything special in it as of now though the song is good.* * *ponmagaL* A very good remix of the song. I liked it on listening to it the first time itself. Aslam's voice sounds so good! After listening to a nice remix of an old song, I got reminded of all those times when wonderful remixes of old Hindi songs used to be released. Ah those golden days of Indipop!! *nee Marilyn Monroe* One of the best songs of this album. I have always liked peppy songs of Rahman and this one is no exception. The way Benny Dayal goes *nee nee* and then, the song starts with *nee marilyn monroe* gets you hooked. *vaLayapatti* Easily the best song of the album. [image: :)] Everything from the opening line, *'nee nadaswaram pola vandhaa'* to lines like *'naan tiruvaiyaaru kutcheri'* to the swarams in my favourite raagams *nilambari, saraswati* and *behag*, *nee paakkum bodhe patthikkudhe* are superb! Do I even have to say anything about the male singer of this song? Naresh Iyer rocks as usual!!! [image: :)] After listening to ATM songs continuously in my mobile for some 6 hours, I turned the random mode of the music player on and guess what song played? Pachchai nirame! [image: :)] After listening to Pachchai nirame, the songs of ATM fade away in comparison. And that's when I realized that a non-Rahmaniac will do the mistake of comparing most of recent Rahman's songs with ones like Pachchai nirame and say that the standard of his music has gone down when that's not the case at all. You just have to give a Rahman's song the time needed so as to fully let the magic in it unfold completely. [image: :)] Awaiting the magic in the music of ATM to unfold, Aparna *P.S.: I wrote the first and last para yesterday. After listening to ATM songs till 3pm yesterday, I am listening to the songs again only today evening!* ** *http://aparna-a.com/2007/10/24/azhagiya-tamizh-magan-the-songs/ *
