Yes. Blue's Orchestration is top notch! No second thoughts. And you're too cautious about your choice of words & rightly so. Lol.
But your point on interludes led me to ponder the best *extended* musical ludes of Rahman. The ones which came to my mind immediately were: Ennuyir Thoziye - Kangalal kaidhu sei Dil se re & few more. But since Jodhaa Akbar i have relished ludes of only 3 songs (As it often keeps playing in my mind). First interludes of Masakali, Dafatan & the continuum outro of Rehna Tu. Incidentaly all three are from Delhi 6. Hence yes it is a weakness/negative/criticism in relative terms for over a period of time in AR's career and not just confined to one album. Not sure many would agree with my views though. Btw, I just got my copy of Blue CD and the package is slick! ________________________________ From: ichord <[email protected]> To: [email protected] Sent: Thursday, September 10, 2009 12:28:51 AM Subject: Re: [arr] My First Blue Review Thanks for the compliments, Prakash. Your observations are very sharp. Although I do miss extended musical interludes in Blue, the lush orchestration and intricate arrangements are simply mindblowing! !!!!! Oh, one more relative weakness in the soundtrack.. .. raw melody. Remember, I said RELATIVE!!!! !! --- In arrahmanfans@ yahoogroups. com, Prakash Balaramkrishna <prakysnaky@ ...> wrote: > > Good Review Chord. > > "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." > > Agree. In fact IIRC you've mentioned lack of instrumental interludes as a > weakness in all your reviews from Jodhaa Akbar to Blue. I second your views . > Baradwaj rangan, the critic went to the extent of calling them as > half-hearted interludes from Rahman. Delhi 6 was probably an exception as it > had some great instrumental ludes in almost all the songs. But of late the > vocal ludes and chants were dominant and instrumental ludes have become a > rarity. Hope you won't mention this point as a negative when you review > Raavan's music :) > > And your writing is good & articulate. Trust me. You can have a competent > career as a Writer too. Keep up the good work. > > Drowning into Blue's Music. > > > > > > ____________ _________ _________ __ > From: ichord <purev...@.. .> > To: arrahmanfans@ yahoogroups. com > Sent: Wednesday, September 9, 2009 5:50:15 PM > Subject: [arr] My First Blue Review > > > 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! >
