FRESH TUNES: SOME OF THE BEST TAMIL SONGS RELEASED LAST MONTH! DON'T MISS!

Disclaimer: Behindwoods.com isn't responsible for the views expressed by the author (MJ Raghavan) in this article. The author (MJ Raghavan) claims that these songs/album evaluation is his/her own. The list is decided by the author (MJ Raghavan) himself. If the article here infringes on any copyrights that you hold, please email raghavanmj@gmail.com and support@behindwoods.com.

Anbarey

Santhosh Narayanan maybe is a bit lucky that he gets movie albums, which demand very differing styles across the 3-5 songs. It could also be that the producers and directors of these movies give Santhosh quite a lot of freedom to explore various musical genres. Forget all that, I personally believe Santhosh is that skilled that he could composed “Matna Gaali” and “Anbarey”all within a week. This is one amazing number and even though the tune, the production is spectacular, the singing by Dhee and breathtaking lyrics by Vivek are probably bigger reasons for the song to be heard and remembered for long. Santhosh has composed, arranged, programmed, recorded, mixed and mastered the song and it once again is a move away from the traditional songs that have the pallavi-anupallavi-charanam structure. It rises like mercury on a summer day as the temperature just starts off warm and the then it beats you down. You just cannot make up your mind whether to focus on Dhee’s amazing voice, the lyrics or the stunning Strings in the background by the FAME'S Skopje Studio Orchestra (Macedonia). The strings are arranged by Karthik Manickavasakam and Orchestra is conducted by Oleg Kondratenko. Lines like “Meenathain Nilavil Iraithan, Nilavalli Thindru Vinmeen aagiren” are inexplicably brilliant. Just enjoy the soothing experience of the “Yelo Yelelo” in between , that gives you a mild breather from the strong words and singing. The same lines I mentioned above, the second time when Dhee sings and ends with the words “ Vinmeen agiren” has something exciting she does with her vocals which remind u show talented and gifted she is as a Singer. The introduction of that mild rap once again shows what Santhosh is capable of. Just listen to this song on loop and it still won’t be enough. Meenakshi Santhosh is the musicians’ co-ordinator.

Bejara

I already have featured two songs from Iravin Nizhal with one by Shreya Ghoshal and the other sung by Sarthak Kalyani called ‘Kannethire’ which is probably the best song of the album. This one deserves a mention for some unique features especially Haricharan’s vocals, which are not in the usual comfort zone of his and that being melody and love songs. He and Bamba Bakya are the vocalists and AR Rahman gets a kuthu styled song with some very varied live instruments making it a good listen. Rahman composes, arranged and produces the number with lyrics by Parthiban the director. Omkar Dhumal who I heard play the Shehnai on multiple occasions plays the saxophone here and that must be a great moment for him considering it was ARR who used and introduced the cinema music world to the great Kadri Gopalnath. It is almost like Omkar follows his footsteps, and infact I even sensed Anandhabhiaravi in this song just like “Mettu Podu” from the movie ‘Duet’ which had Kadri Gopalnath blow us away literally and metaphorically. Drums Shivamani handles all the rhythm section, but it is Haricharan who just simply sizzles especially when he brings variations to the line “ Paalarum Theenarum odumannum pathen”. Subhani plays the Mandolin and all the strings we hear are by Chennai String Section, conducted by Jerry Vincent. The sound engineers are Suresh Permal, Karthik Sekaran, Aravind Crescendo, Suryansh, Sarthak Kalyani and Nakul Abhyankar is the music supervisor. Pradvay Shivashankar does the mixing and Suresh Permal is on mastering duties. Riyasdeen Riyan does the Apple Digital master.

En Paathi Neethandi

I have featured Mejjo Joseph before on this website, and he is a very trustworthy composer who will come up with a very enjoyable melody from time to time. A songs journey and especially its success depends on how the singers deliver it and that is why Mejjo’s choice of lead vocalists deserves applause. Haricharan and Chinmayi are stalwarts who can just elevate the song by multiple levels purely on their vocals and hat is exactly what happens in this number as well. I felt a resemblance to “Sonnalum Ketpathillai” by AR Rahman and that is why I believe there is Nalinakanthi Raagam influence. I can hear the guitars and solo on Violin in the background adding depth. The flute solo and Violin create a very semi-classical styled interlude. The end of the stanza shows how comfortable Haricharan is at the high scale notes and the frequent interjections on the flute and Violin are very creative and well executed. The song is rich in quality with a very meaty anu pallavi and charanam as well. Shiju Ediyatheril does the mixing and mastering.

Ethikkum

Nivas K prasanna and Malvi Sundaresan are combining with extreme efficacy and I have my fingers crossed that the composer-singer duo goes on to achieve bigger things. It started with “Nira” for me as a reviewer and in “Ethikkum” I get a sense of Raja Reborn again as the song gives the texture and tone of “Roja Poo” from ‘Agni Natchathiram’. There is a rap segment written and sung by Saras Menon but the important feature is that the song is written by Gangai Amaren, the legend. Malvi starts off in the baritone, but she is at her best when she sings the higher scales in “Muththam endral, Moththam inge”. Wonder whether the world of lyrical fans would have burst into rage hearing “saththam vanthal I don’t really care”, looking at “Love Storiyan” reactions. But Gangai shows ingenuity in these words. Nivas has composed, arranged and programmed the track, and the song has some fantastic sound design by Hevin Booster. The harmonies are well executed by Niranjana Ramanan, Reshma Shyam and Deepti Suresh. The Nivas stamp of melody comes in the line “Pazhaga Pazhaga varum ullasame”, and it is delivered with utmost beauty by Malvi. Naveen Samson plays the guitars and the bassist is Manikandan. Alex Samuel Jenito is the associate music producer and the track is mixed and mastered by KS Maniratnam.

Hello Endra pesatta

This is a rare and simple love song in the indie space in Tamil, because most songs that I hear are either grand projects from the movie space or ballads, rock or Jazz in the indie space. This is a very simple melody driven by guitars and vocals. Shridhar Ramesh has composed and sung it and Shriram Nagarajan writes the words trying to portray the mind of a boy trying to talk to a girl he likes. Vijay Ganesan has arranged, produced, played guitars as well as mixed and mastered the track and Shridhar Ramesh has done all the additional programming. I love the vocals of Shridhar who really explores a good vocal range and needless to the say the acoustic guitar support is substantial and soothes you. Some of the moments of backing vocal support also are well executed and arranged. Kishore Suresh Kannan does the artwork and Manasa Preetha creates the lyrical video both of which are quite catchy. Shridhar singing “Unnai sera thudikkiren” is the highlight as hits the high notes with incredible ease and fervor. Vijay does a fantastic job in overall production, vocal as well as instrumental arrangements.

Imai

Is it Bombay Jayashri? I had to rub my eyes twice because I couldn’t believe my eyes. This was not her but some artist called Sahana Lakshmi Venkatesh enthralled me with this one. Here rendition and delivery were spot on and created a deep impact and partly helped by BM Krishna’s lyrics. I originally assumed there was some Raag Bihag, but when I had a chat with Sahana, she corrected me and then I realized that this was Nalinakanthi, as I could certainloy hear “Enthan Nenjil Neengatha” by Maestro Ilaiyaraja. The song is produced by Saksham DHar and he also does the mixing, so credit goes to him for the brilliant output. We can hear the Keyboards and other elements on the Synths adding strength and layers to this touching number. The flute solo is there for us to feel the love as Ashish Venkateswaran plays the solo.  I would love to hear more from Sahana in the future as she comfortably at either ends of the vocal scale.   This song was mastered at the Tiny Room Studios.

Kannukulle

The movie is getting some excellent reviews and maybe the songs in the album had a role to play in the movie’s success as well. This song like the others in the album is composed, arranged and produced by Vishal Chandrasekhar and if you have heard his music, you will know that he tries and sticks to the basics quite well and he is very dependable in delivering a classical raga based number with a very likable, and heartening twist and touch to suit our modern tastes. He brings in the big guns in Haricharan and Sinduri to play lead vocalists, and this one has a very strong influence of Raaga Gowrimanohari. Subhani impresses as he plays multiple instruments like the Banjo, Bouzouki, Electric Mandolin, Acoustic Mandolin, Oud, Ruan, Saz and Ukulele. The song oozes quality and you will be reminded of “Kanna Varuvaya” by Maestro Ilaiyaraja. Punya Srinivas intervenes on the Veena here and there beautifully and Chris Jason plays the Ukulele and guitars. I love how the song has lines shared between the lead vocalists and they keep delivering alternatively like a Q&A session. Madhan Karky excels as the lyricist in this format and intelligently written lines.      The Tabla and Dholak also takes us to the 1990s and we have Shruthiraj, Kiran, Mohan and Nathan playing the percussion instruments. The massive chorus team comprises of Aravind Annestt, Sai Sharan, Sarath Santosh, Pitty Vikram, Praveen RG, Shibi Srinivasan, Sreekanth Hariharan, Deepesh Krishnamoorthy, Keshav Vinod, Sudharshan Ajay, Velu, Balaji Sri, Sushmita Narasimhan, Devu Mathew, Feji Mathew, Aishwarya Kumar, Triya Sushma, Padmaja Sreenivasan, Kiran Sravana, Bhuvana Ananth, Akshaya Shivakumar, Aparna Hari, and there is also a kids chorus team of Dhanika Krishnasamy, Vishruthi.V, Yohitha.K, Aasitha.K, Shivathmika, Adhira Suresh Kumar, Ananya Swaminathan and Maya Swaminathan. The strings are performed by The Chennai Strings Orchestra and conducted by Yensone Bagyanathan. The recording engineers are Pradeep Menon, Sathya Narayanan, Manoj Raman, Ainul Huq, Midhun Manoj, Vishnu, Avinash Satish, Hariharan, Divine Joseph, Venkat, Aditya and Akhil CS. Deepak Chander does all the additional programming and with Jai Ganesh on mixing, AM Rahmathullah does the mastering.

Maasaru Ponne

The movie was phenomenal and it needed a strong presence of a background score which was provided by Govind Vasantha with his thumping violins. Such a movie with a heavy subject and intense screenplay wouldn’t need songs and maybe that is why I found only this song to be most appealing. Krithika Karthick Pandiyan is the lead vocalist along with Govind and he stings you with his Scottish bagpipe sounds. Then the strings section is all over on you along with drums, only to be followed by Govind’s lines. The guitars also strike you with their rock-style and if you have seen the movie, the message and emotions are excellent delivered by the tempo and genre of the song. Karthick Netha is the lyricist.

Megham Karukkatha

Some fans of Anirudh have complained that he scores better for Sivakarthikeyan than even Dhanush, and I am not sure about that. This movie has at least one good song and ‘Megham Karukkatha’ is any Jazz lover’s delight. The upright bass along with the backing vocals by Arjun Chandy caught my attention immediately. Then a mild smirk win Dhanush’s voice along with Yuri Villar’s saxophone piqued my interest even more. The line “Kanbashai pesinal” sounds almost like “Kannale pesi pesi kollathe” sung by PB Sreenivos. Dhanush does well in writing these lyrics as well as the cool, quirky casual style of singing, but he once again disappoints with his pronunciation.  The best line is the “paraka paraka thudikithe, pazhaga pazhaga pidikkuthe” which has even the backing vocals and Ayran Nicodemo on Violin in the background. Anirudh handles the composition, arrangements, keyboards, synths as well as rhythm programming. Dhanush gets the “Penne” diction wrong and this is not the first time that it has happened. Jon-Paul Frappier polays the trumpets, Lalith Talluri is on the flute Josh Plotner plays the Oboe. The melody is not new and it sounds very much like the songs from “3” which Anirudh composed many years ago. The flute solo toward sthe end will also remind you of the BGM of “VIP” which also was score by him. Ananthakrrishnan is the music advisor and the track was mixed and mastered by Vinay Shridhar with recording engineers Srinivasan M and Shivakiran S. Shashank Vijay does all the additional rhythm programming and Velavan B does the music co-ordination.

Neere

Ernest Richards has written, composed, produced and sung this song. The number feels like a sleeper which means it starts off on low energy, but then as it progresses past the first 30 seconds it becomes more impactful. Clearly the lyrics are in praise of the Lord Jesus, and even though Ernest’s vocals show room for improvement the Keys, Synths and overall production makes it a worthy number to listen to.

Oraayiram Jenmam

Simon K King is one more favorite of mine and whenever he is presented with an opportunity, he gets the job done well. This movie “Paper Rocket” is a golden opportunity for composers Simon, Ved Shanker and Dharan Kumar, and we already have Ved’s “Oru Kanni” in this month’s list. Simon has composed, arranged and programmed the track while it is written by Ku.Karthick. Last year I had featured this musican Keshav Ram as a mandolin player for a song called “Kadavalum Nanum”. Here we have him debuting as a singer and he has done a fabulous job. The song requires great emotional connectivity as it is sort of a lullaby and Keshav is able to deliver with his vocals. The lyrics are excellently penned creating that feeling of love and longing. Keshav’s high scales are so perfectly executed and it hits the right nerve when he sings “mudiyatha”. Lalit Talluri on the flute solo creates a rush of emotions and it is all aided by the programmed strings in the background. The Keys, guitars and bass add very delicate yet important layers to the melody of the song.

Oru Kanni

We have mentioned Nivas Prasanna, and just like him Ved Shanker is another exciting talent I always look forward to hearing and in the movie “Paper Rocket” he more than delivers. Sreekanth Hariharan is the vocalist and he is one of those who utilizes the very likable tone and texture to great effect. The introduction of the folk percussion in a song that starts off differently is all Ved Shanker’s signature. The bass guitars accompany the percussion right through and then we have the Sarangi in the interlude to further add Indian traditional elements. The song reminds me of “Andhi Mazhai megham” by Ilaiyaraja in the fact that, it also had very local Indian percussion along with strings and other Western instruments. Mani Amruthavan is the lyricist who has written these charming lines for the song. The melody is extremely enjoyable and it touches your heart and we have Ved and Sreekanth to thank for that.

Tharangini

Sarthak Kalyani is one of my favorite indie musicians, and I have featured him many times as a music reviewer composing, producing and singing some amazing semi-classical fusion numbers in Hindi. He works with 2 more musicians for a project called ‘Muhafiz’ and old Urdu Poems are given new tunes and color. Anyway recently he has been on song literally and been performing for AR Rahman. His ‘Kannethire’ was a delectable hit from ‘Iravin Nizhal’ and now he sings in ‘Cbra’ too. Nakul Abhyankar accompanies him on backing vocals and Mira Sengupta on the female lead. Thamarai writes these very interesting quirky lines. The song reminds me straight away of AR Rahmans “Aa Aa Mayilamma”, from ‘Kangalal Kaidhu Sei’. I’m just thrilled and amazed by Sarthak’s splendid vocal texture and more so by his diction in Tamil. He is providing lessons to many singers and giving inspiration to sing correctly in a language. AR Rahman has composed, arranged and programmed but Nakul lays his hands on the programming bits as well as you can hear some solid keyboards and synths in the song. The harmonies both in the singing and the “ooo” humming are just fantastic. There are similarities to “Pudhu malar thottu” by Vidyasagar, so it is probably having some Raagam Yamankalyani influence although I keep thinking if there is some Raagam Begada as well. In true AR Rahman fashion the interlude shifts away from the tone and style of the pallavi and anupallavi with Mira Sengupta’s enticing aalap in the interlude. The stanza is a continuation of the lead and harmony vocal style we heard in the opening lines. The track is mixed by Nitish R Kumar, and mastered by Suresh Permal. The sound engineers are Karthik Sekaran, Aravind Crescendo and Suryansh. Riyasdeen Riyan does the Apple Digital Master.

Theethiriyai

The song was a raging hit in all parts of India crossing over 50 million YT hits within days, but that was partly helped by the “Love Storiyan” battle over lyrics. I personally liked any ingenuity in lyrics so that did not bother me, but apparently the song in Tamil, Telugu, Kannada and Malayalam became very popular as fans wanted to boycott the Hindi version and listen to the tune in other languages. The song is not something out of the ordinary but it was Pritam in 3rd gear when he is quite capable of moving in the 5th. The song’s likability was boosted thanks to the production by Himonshu Parikh who is also one of the guys behind the success of the Indie group ‘The Yellow Diary’. Sid Sriram is the male lead vocalist in Tamil and he brings in a few elements that Arijit leaves out in the Hindi version. The way Sid introduces the swaras and aalap in the interlude is nice because that is totally absent in Hindi. There are moments when I got very uncomfortable with Sid’s higher notes and his Tamil pronunciation is questionable saying “Ulahe” instead of “Ulage” “Mahala” instead of “Magala”, and “Azhahe” instead of “Azhage”. Madhan Karky’s lyrics do the job well, and Himonshu excels in arrangements and production along with DJ Phukan(also responsible for the sound design along with Ashwin Kulkarni). The backing vocals, humming etc. are designed by Himonshu and Aniruddh Anantha. Dev Arijit, Aniruddh along with Tushar Joshi and Akashdeep are the vocal conductors. Shirish Prakash Singh assists Himonshu while Pukhraj SOnkar and Anup Gandharla assist Shadab Rayeen on mixing. The Veena Solo in the interlude is played by exquisitely by Narayan Mani and Harshvardhan Gadhvi plays the electric guitar.

Un Arigil Yeno

Anal Akash goes solo for this very pleasing melody as he writes, composes, arranges and performs the number. There is a lot of keyboard and synth programming that props up the background layers. Anal’s vocals are uplifting and inspiring showing vulnerability of emotions in that delivery as well. The Keys dominate with everything pausing and then the rhythms rise the energy. Be in the interlude or the stanza Anal excels in his high-scale delivery as well his ghamakas, which end up being neither under or over-cooked. Jey does all the mixing and mastering.

Uyirthuli

This song is simple in structure, but I wanted to feature it for its message. The song is part of a Breastfeeding Awareness campaign and the lyrics are the crucial element in such an anthem, written by Venkata Prasad. Lalit Talluri plays the flute solo and he now has appeared in 3 songs in the month. Sathyaprakash is a fantastic choice as the lead vocalist and the way he progressively jumps to the higher notes before singing the title line “Uyir thuli” is admirable. Vijay Ganesan plays the guitars and Shallu Varun is the bassist, and the composer is Ashok Sridharan who does more than enough to impress with his grand Orchestral arrangements in the interlude. Ajai Kashyap and Swati Ganesh are the backing vocalists in the track, and kudos to Aswin George who has mixed and mastered the track. The initiative and concept is by Ramya Ramachandran. The harmonies, Strings section are all arranged and programmed with great refinement.

Vattam Thaan

Nivas K Prasanna can be easily categorized as very talented young composer and it is heartening to see him live upto the hype almost every single time. The song has elements, which are just splendid in ideation and execution. The Piano and strings along with the acoustic guitars are combining perfectly in the beginning with Nivas’ modified vocals and then Malgudi Subha’s iconic voice. It has been so long since she sung a song and it is nice that she got a comeback of this quality. The harmonies, bass guitars all takes us back in time to Maestro Ilaiyaraja’s heydays when he was composing movies like ‘Anjali’ and ‘Agni Natchathiram’ with a pop influence. Mohan Rajan writes the lyrics and he is upto the task. Nivas also introduces very exciting rhythms, percussion and trumpets as well. The ending stage is like a piece of Latino Jazz, which just makes you, want to get up and dance. We have to credit the amazing vocalists on harmonies viz. Shenbagaraj, Deepak Blue, Sai Sharan, Santhosh Hariharan, Aravind Srinivas. Super Subu writes the lyrics with interesting English and Tamil lines. Alex Samuel Jenito and Hevin Booster (with Alex also being the Executive Producer of the track) arrange the harmonies. Babu plays the trumpets, Manikandan is the bassist and Naveen Samson Benjamin is on guitars.

Vizhi

The pleasure of writing about and reviewing a song by a composer I have not heard of before is exciting and inspiring for my work. Vishnudev KS and Lakshmi V have written, composed, conceptualized and sung this excellent song, which captivated me within seconds. The heavy Carnatic influence is undeniable and in fact I am most impressed by the modern presentation of this song which has influences of Raagas like Dhanyasi, Kalyani , Sahana and Madhyamavathi. Ravi G who has been singing songs for Anirudh and Govind Vasantha these days, is the man behind the spotless arrangements. The famous Artist who also has acted in a movie or two, Sumesh Narayanan plays the Mridangam and does all the additional rhythm programming. Godfray Immanuel plays the guitars and the bass and Keys all present a fresh take and make this one enjoyable fusion number. Lakshmi and Vishnudev are authentic in their vocal delivery. The title line “Vizhi irandu, parvai ondru” conveys a deeper message. The harmonies are well arranged and the programming elements give an EDM and Lo-fi angle to the song as well. Alwin Kuryakkos is the recording engineer and Sujith Sreedhar does the mixing and mastering.