This is not a song by song review, though I will mention songs, but merely my thoughts after several complete run throughs of the whole album.
Some ARR soundtracks are serious/classy/melancholic, while others are commercial/fun/peppy/. Blue clearly falls in the latter. But, Blue is no lightweight when it comes to Rahman's core strengths in delivering a score for a adventure/action/thriller movie. In fact, we have not seen AR do much of these types of scores in the past, esp. up North. As someone posted earlier, you cannot expect a much better score given the type of movie/script. Anthony D'Souza as extracted well from AR. What I like about Blue: What a thrilling album!!!! Entertaining and rocking to the core!!! Songs are instantly likeable, catchy, thumping! But, what makes the album even more interesting is the substance behind the style...the lush orchestration, new sounds, complex arrangements, mostly electronic bells and whistles. Chiggy's combo of hip hop and Bhangra is seamlessly transitioned with incredibly sexy words and voice intonations by Kylie. Sonu does his part with good aplomb and spirit. I heard some great interludes in Rehnuma, Bhoola Tujhe, with Rahman's briiliant use of the Chennai Strings Orchestra. Rashid Ali shines in Bhoola Tujhe with the lusth backdrop of acoustic guitar and lush symphonic arrangements, highlighted by a beautiful trumpet solo melody interlude and backdrop later. The use of piano in a jazzish/latin flavor in Aaj Dil is nothing short of remarkable and brilliant. Love the loopy rhythm guitar in Aaj Dil too. Singing is stylish, passionate, and very convincing. Fiqrana bosts of some extremely likeable rhythms and guitar riffs with a great performance by Vijay Prakash, who shows his versatility after a semi classical outing in Yuvvraaj. You missed a good one, Farhan. And Shreya shines throughout the album with her sexy, sensual, silky voice!!!! Sonu's parts are also well substantive and I don't think you'll hear him complaining much this time around! I love the raaga parts of Blue theme with the female voices and the guitar riffs and rocks are just jolting in that one. Love the underwater sound in the end. Rehnuma strikes me as a song that AR would compose had Farhan Akhtar done a movie with him, mild traces of SEL's Don's music here in terms of mood and chord progressions, but nothing at all copied. A very James Bondish number as my friend pointed out. Udit and Madhushree do a light hearted but fun tune in Yaar Mila, with minimalistic sound, but with nice melody. I feel that the lyrics are overall average, but perhaps apt. The album boasts of spontaneity, pazzaz (sp?), and some of the most rocking, thrilling, entertaining numbers our Boss has delivered with lush sounds with such a variety of genres here and new trends. What I don't like about Blue: Well, some of the rhythm tracks are a bit straightforward. I would have liked to have heard more more interludes and variations in Chiggy, Fiqrana, and Yaar Mila, esp Yaar Mila, which I found lacking in terms of instrumentation and arrangements, but perhaps, that was the intended purpose. The ability to show restraint within a song is a highly overlooked, but very important quality of a great composer. Although Blue Theme rocks, it is a bit too loud for my preferred tastes, but perhaps, that's what was needed. Also wish the Theme had more melodic variation with some softer interludes. Parts of the soundtrack are a bit loud and heavy with reduced delicacy, but hey, can't complain too much given the type of movie this score is for. Verdict (for now) A big thumbs up for me. If I had to rate it right now, it would be 8/10, keeping the type of movie in mind as well as my subjective feelings. Lots of goose pimple moments for me in this soundtrack. The score still has to grow, I know. Rahman has set the bar high for an action score with extremely thrilling, entertaining, fun, rocking numbers high in substance and style both. Congrats, AR!
