Label: YRF Music,

Music Director: Pritam, Pankaj Awasthi, Julius Packiam,

Rating: 3/5,

Talk about fresh music out of the can. After months of waiting, Bollywood’s first music release is out – the question is simple, does New York open the new season of Bollywood music releases with a bang? Or is it just ho-hum… Well, it may not be exceptionally well, but just good enough to start off!

Being one of the most anticipated releases under the Yash Raj banner, New York has Pritam taking the music charge (well, not completely though). The album gives credits to Pankaj Awasthi (for Aye Saaye Mere), Julius Packiam (for New York Theme, Sam’s Theme and the remix version of Mere Sang). In all, the album boasts of eight tracks (four songs, two remixes, and two theme songs – too much to calculate). Now let’s get to the music!

The opening track Hai Junoon – is a hummable fun song with all the ingredients of being a commercial success – you may just end up hearing this on the radio stations, music channels, promos and on the cell phone of your fellow traveler in coming days! The song is sung by KK (he never goes wrong with such songs) while the simple easy words are written by Sandeep Shrivastava. The track stands out for two reasons – one, it has simple lyrics, and two, the melody takes just seconds to hit. The no-fuzz simple arrangements add poise. The mandatory remix version of the same song by Julius Packiam is a made-for-club – I’ll prefer the original though. 

Second comes ‘Mere Sang’ – the song is good, but not great. Sunidhi Chauhan sings this rock influenced melancholic song with her usual cuff – however, for some reason the track fails to connect even after multiple hearings. The Hinglish lyrics sprinkled here and there do more harm than good, but leaving that aside, the overall lyrical contributions by Sandeep Shrivastava are laudable –   but as mentioned, this might take some time for listeners to connect or may simply go unnoticed. The song also has a remixed version – best avoided!

Next is Mohit Chauhan’s Tune Jo Kaha – a soft number, perhaps tailor made for the emotional scenes, and, also for Mohit Chauhan's singing style! The structure and progressions of Tune Jo Kaha sound very similar to what Chauhan has delivered in his previous projects – maybe he should experiment to avoid getting typecast. Having said that, Tune Jo Kaha has an ‘ambience’ feel (well mixed, of course) and that makes it sound quite different to the ears – the words penned by Sandeep Shrivastava are well thought. If well picturised, this one is sure to catch on.  

The track Aye Saaye Mere can be called as a contemporary mix of qawwalli and sufi genres. Composed and sung by Pankaj Awasthi, the song has a groove which won’t let you off the hook easily. Written by Junaid Wasi, this makes one of the most appropriate examples of balance between traditional and contemporary sounds – in terms of lyrics, composition and arrangements.  For those who came in late, Awasthi has been in the Bollywood music circuit for long and was also the one who had composed the background music of feature film Anwar besides composing for John Abraham starrer Karam (remember the track ‘Tera Hi Karam’?). Awasthi pulls this off single handedly – and this project might just bring him in spotlight!

For die-hard movie freaks, the two theme songs – Sam’s Theme and New York Theme may be of some interest – perhaps after watching the film (?). Besides the eight songs from the album, the CD comes with a free DVD collection of 25 video songs from films like Jhoom Barabar Jhoom, Bunty Aur Babli, Veer Zaara, Salaam Namaste, Kabul Express, Dhoom 2, Tara Rum Pum, Neil n Nikki and Fanaa (all YRF productions). Price Rs 149/-. After a considerably long dry spell, even a minor shower is welcome. Go for this one or wait for the real downpour!

Label: YRF Music,

Music Director: Pritam, Pankaj Awasthi, Julius Packiam,

Rating: 3/5,

Talk about fresh music out of the can. After months of waiting, Bollywood’s first music release is out – the question is simple, does New York open the new season of Bollywood music releases with a bang? Or is it just ho-hum… Well, it may not be exceptionally well, but just good enough to start off!

Being one of the most anticipated releases under the Yash Raj banner, New York has Pritam taking the music charge (well, not completely though). The album gives credits to Pankaj Awasthi (for Aye Saaye Mere), Julius Packiam (for New York Theme, Sam’s Theme and the remix version of Mere Sang). In all, the album boasts of eight tracks (four songs, two remixes, and two theme songs – too much to calculate). Now let’s get to the music!

The opening track Hai Junoon – is a hummable fun song with all the ingredients of being a commercial success – you may just end up hearing this on the radio stations, music channels, promos and on the cell phone of your fellow traveler in coming days! The song is sung by KK (he never goes wrong with such songs) while the simple easy words are written by Sandeep Shrivastava. The track stands out for two reasons – one, it has simple lyrics, and two, the melody takes just seconds to hit. The no-fuzz simple arrangements add poise. The mandatory remix version of the same song by Julius Packiam is a made-for-club – I’ll prefer the original though. 

Second comes ‘Mere Sang’ – the song is good, but not great. Sunidhi Chauhan sings this rock influenced melancholic song with her usual cuff – however, for some reason the track fails to connect even after multiple hearings. The Hinglish lyrics sprinkled here and there do more harm than good, but leaving that aside, the overall lyrical contributions by Sandeep Shrivastava are laudable –   but as mentioned, this might take some time for listeners to connect or may simply go unnoticed. The song also has a remixed version – best avoided!

Next is Mohit Chauhan’s Tune Jo Kaha – a soft number, perhaps tailor made for the emotional scenes, and, also for Mohit Chauhan's singing style! The structure and progressions of Tune Jo Kaha sound very similar to what Chauhan has delivered in

The track Aye Saaye Mere can be called as a contemporary mix of qawwalli and sufi genres. Composed and sung by Pankaj Awasthi, the song has a groove which won’t let you off the hook easily. Written by Junaid Wasi, this makes one of the most appropriate examples of balance between traditional and contemporary sounds – in terms of lyrics, composition and arrangements.  For those who came in late, Awasthi has been in the Bollywood music circuit for long and was also the one who had composed the background music of feature film Anwar besides composing for John Abraham starrer Karam (remember the track ‘Tera Hi Karam’?). Awasthi pulls this off single handedly – and this project might just bring him in spotlight!

For die-hard movie freaks, the two theme songs – Sam’s Theme and New York Theme may be of some interest – perhaps after watching the film (?). Besides the eight songs from the album, the CD comes with a free DVD collection of 25 video songs from films like Jhoom Barabar Jhoom, Bunty Aur Babli, Veer Zaara, Salaam Namaste, Kabul Express, Dhoom 2, Tara Rum Pum, Neil n Nikki and Fanaa (all YRF productions). Price Rs 149/-. After a considerably long dry spell, even a minor shower is welcome. Go for this one or wait for the real downpour!