LIST OF THE EXCITING SONGS RELEASED THIS AUGUST IS HERE - SO WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR? CHECK NOW!

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Adiye Adiye

A song from a movie that did not get much public attention never becomes famous as well sometimes. This is one perfect example of the same, but when you hear it, you know the song deserves so much more. Haricharan sings it like a breeze and the composition by K needs some appreciation for sure. The strong guitars both acoustic and bass, give instrumental support. Gnanakaravel is the lyricist who writes these romantic lyrics. The stanza is rich in quality and we hear some solid rhythm and keyboard programming come into play, especially the strings. The song is bound to be on the lips of many youngsters, and it is Haricharan who once again shows why he is the undisputed best in the industry. The other song I love on the album is 'Otta Pirichu'sunh by Anthony Daasan and written by Mani Amuthavan, and here K introduces a very different style altogether. Anthony's dazzling vocals, harmonies, slide guitar, and Violins just elevate the number.

Cheranaadu

This movie's album must be one of the best released in 2022 and the 3 musicians have all done a splendid job. Last month I did feature two songs, one by Simon K King and another by Ved Shanker. This time too we have two songs and this one is as enjoyable as any on the list. Simon deserves a huge round of applause for getting Ramya Nambeesan to perform this. It feels like she is so under-utilised as a vocalist and there is an innate innocence in her voice that works very well here. There probably is an influence of Raag Karaharapriya and two amazing components that glorify the number are the guitars and the male harmonies. The interlude has some excellent introductions of the Thavil, Nadaswaram and Konakkol sounds. Ku Karthik and Joe Paul are the lyricists for the Tamil and Malayalam words.

Come with me / yen kooda vaa

Aakash Rajan is a talented singer-songwriter who I have featured among the best Independent musicians in the land. This too is a catchy indie singe that talks about conversations with oneself and how it can have a very good outcome. Aakash has written, composed, produced, sung and even mixed the track. The lovely guitars are arranged by Hrday Sunil and the delightful combination of the electric, bass guitars and the local Tamil percussion Tharathapatta creates a wonderful effect. The song shifts onto English lyrics with the percussion slowly fading and it feels very different thanks to some excellent production. It feels like a Beatles number with Aakash's style of singing. The outro is another excellent segment with the title lines, the guitars, percussion and harmonies. Vivek Thomas has mastered the track.

Cool Dude

Ghibran is like Michael Bevan, the Australian cricketer who was incredibly consistent. Other than that one more characteristic that Ghibran shares with the cricketer are that the latter would always keep batting slowly and silently, and suddenly he would cross the 40-run mark without anyone noticing. Like that Ghibran without any major fuss keeps scoring both consistently and exquisitely. Here he ventures into the famed synth-pop genre of the 1990s and I am reminded of the Swedish band A-ha and their brilliant tracks like "Take on Me". Ghibran has composed and arranged with V Sritharan as supervisor and Gold Devaraj assisting. Vishnupriya Ravi gets her emphatic vocals and puts them to full use in the delivery, and she effuses the coolness required for the track. A. Pa. Raja gets very intelligent and witty in writing these lyrics, and the combination of Britto David and Andria Miranda has produced this track, with additional arrangements by Hemanth, LJ Vijay. Sachidanand has played the Mandolin, Guitar, Ukulele and Kalimbas for the track. Chandrasekaran TK has mixed, mastered and recorded the track along with Wesley working on recording and editing.

Dance Anthem

Vishal Chandrasekar uses the Raag Abheri base to create this very funky and catchy dance number and other than the creativity in the musical score, the lyricist Rajesh Giriprasad also uses the old words from the 'Kadhalikka Neramillai' song called "Unga ponnana kaigal". Vishal has composed, arranged and produced it with lead vocalists Sinduri and R.P. Shravan. Chris Jason is on fire as the guitarist and like many of his songs Vishal employs a talented bunch of singers in the Chorus viz. Arvind Annest, Pitty Vikram, Shibi Srinivasan, Devu Mathew and Triya Sushma. The way Vishal uses the vocal improvisations of Michael Jackson in the song is nice, giving more validity that it is a dance anthem at the end of the day. Sinduri's singing is phenomenal with her Konnakol in the first interlude and is ably accompanied by Shravan. Deepak Chander does all the additional programming, and Sinduri handles music supervision, and choral and Voice conducting.

En Mel Vizhundha Mazhaiye

I recently saw the movie, and it was a usual Arulnithi starrer with a good story and some decent mystery in the writing. It is once again Ghibran who is the composer for the movie, and though the BGM was just about OK, this solo song in the album had a nice ring to it. Subhani with his string instruments begins the introductory piece, and then Kapil Kapilan stuns you with his voice. As I have been saying, he is bound to stay here in the long run and one after the other big composers are going to want to use his vocals for their projects. The song seems to be having some influence of Raag Keeravani. The usual team for Ghibran are here at full force, with Gold Devaraj assisting, V Sritharan supervising and playing the Violin Solo, Hary Nair on arrangements along with Vm Bharath and LJ Vijay. The beautiful sounding words are penned Kadhirmozhi. The track is recorded, mixed and mastered by Wesley and Chandrasekaran TK. Kapil wonderfully showcases his full vocal range singing the title lines on either end of the spectrum.

Hey Sita Hey Rama

Vishal Chandrasekar does it one more time, and this time he gives us an enchanting melody that resembles an Ilaiyaraja beauty. I was immediately reminded of songs like "Raja Raja Chozhan naan" thanks to the amazing guitars. Acoustic Guitars, Guitalele, and Nylon Guitar are played by Chris Jason and when we hear SPB Charan, it does create nostalgia taking us back to the SPB glory days. The very mild and intricate use of Banjo, Bouzouki, Mandolins, Oud, Ukulele and the Ruan Saz is by the exponent Subhani. Lalit Talluri plays the flute in the interlude and the chorus singers add life thanks to Sushmita Narasimhan, Feji Ashwin, Triya Sushma, Devu Mathew, Aishwarya Kumar, Arvind Annest, Pitty Vikram, Shibi Srinivasan, Saisharan and Sharath Santhosh. I just fell in love with the stanza which is very melodious in structure, and when it draws to a close, we hear the string arrangements performed by The Chennai Strings Orchestra and conducted by Yensone Bagyanathan. Madhan Karky writes these lyrics that bring the love theme of the movie to the forefront. The solo on the violin is played by the super-talented Sandilya Pisapati and the track is mixed by Jaiganesh and mastered by AM Rahmathullah. The recording engineers are Chandu, Venkat, Avinash Sathish, Hariharan, Pradeep Menon and Sathyakumar.

Kandaen Kandaen

This will be the final song I feature from the album called 'Paper Rocket' and I believe this is the best number. Srisha Mohandas smashes this vocally and Dharan Kumar can now add another feather to his colourful cap with this impressive number. The lyrics are penned by Ku Karthik and with this one you just have to enjoy the song with your headphones and minimal distractions. The texture of a Church Gospel kind of glorifies the song with the harmonies at the beginning. The use of the Piano, Strings are uplifting and the stanza too comes off with a very unpredictable array of notes, and hence it makes the song more interesting. To pull off this well and create a lasting impact wouldn't have been possible without Srisha's vocal strength and delivery.

Manniley

When Imman composes a song you will be guaranteed something to enjoy and sing along with. His attention to the melody element never ebbs. The song is probably a gift handed out to Srinisha Jayaseelan and although she has already established herself as a dependable singer, this one is pure gold, owing to the scope and brand name of Imman. Srinisha gets it on the on-the-dot and the performance is as flawless as it would have been if Imman had handed it over to his favourite Shreya Ghoshal. The song has a repetitive beat that sounds like the running of a horse, as the movie is named 'Poikkal kuthirai', creatively interesting. Keba Jeremiah plays the acoustic and bass guitars while the array of Violins are played by Rex Isaac, Ramachandran, Sasi, Murali, B.G.Venkatesh, George, Mohan, Dhayalan, David Ling, Samson, Prabhu, Ruben, Baskar, Vijayabaskar, Jayakumar, Selva, Shiva, Sekar, Seenu, Narayana Rao, Manoj, Violas by Sebastian, Balu, Hemanth, Girijan, Selva, Gopi, Chandran, Anita, Joseph, Cyril, Dinakar, Vinaykumar and Cellos by Sekar, Somnath, Francis, Seenu Basses-Bidhyut, Suresh and this whole team belongs to the Chennai Strings Orchestra with Yensone Bhagyanathan conducting. Srinisha is unstoppable when she hits the high notes in the stanza and to me, the version sounds much better than the one with Sid Sriram. The track is mixed, mastered, composed, arranged and recorded by Imman, with production by Ranjan and Imman. It is once again that man Madhan Karky who has written the lyrics.

Mouname

This song was a total surprise to me as I had neither heard of the composer Vishnu ever before. He has composed, edited and sung the song. It is probably set in Raag Hindolam, and feels like a 1990 or early 2000s song from the SA Chandrasekar repertoire. The lyrics are written by Joy Kurishingal, but the highlight is the flute solo by Renjith and some retro keyboard programming by Albin.A.R. 

Nee Nee Pothume

The combination of KS Sundaramurthy and Padmapriya Raghavan immediately reminds me of that fantastic number "Meghathoodham". Ravi G has been singing quite a few songs these days, and he brings in an element of Carnatic Classical style in his vocals, something the song demands. The acoustic and bass guitars stand out for me right at the beginning and once again it is Padmapriya's soothing voice that does the trick. Karthik Netha writes the lyrics, and the song has these fantastic moments especially the interlude with the flute solo and interesting rhythms. The second interlude has an Ilaiyaraja-style acoustic guitar solo and this is followed by Ravi's wonderful rendition. I can't quite figure out the Ragam influence in this one, but do sense some similarities with "Thanni thottu thedi vandha" from 'Sindhubhairavi'.

Ninaivugal

Yuvan Shankar Raja is a decent singer with limited abilities but is quite popular in Tamil Nadu owing to his unique voice and delivery style. This, however, is an excellent number and Yuvan must probably thank Imman the composer for this opportunity and this may just revive his singing career once again. The track is composed, arranged, recorded, mixed and mastered by D Imman, and written by Madhan Karky. It is a solid number with some fantastic production and sounds thanks to Imman and Ranjan, giving it a vibe very different from the majority of Imman's songs. Keba Jeremiah plays the acoustic, electric and bass guitars, and the percussions are conducted by Kaviraj and performed by Babu, Pradeep, Raja, Balu, Manoj, Saravanan, David, Chiranjeevi, Azhagiri. The song gives that futuristic, sci-fi texture and the Harmony comprises of Santosh Hariharan, Deepak, Shenbagaraj, Aravind Srinivas, Narayanan, Vignesh Narayanan, Veena Murali, Sowmya Mahadevan, Deepthi Suresh, Abinaya Shenbagaraj, Ala B Bala and Soundarya Nandakumar along with the Elfe Choir team of Roe Vincent, Angelin Nisha, Sheryl Suraj, Deepa Shankar, Nisha Sharon, Krithika Konda, Sneha Sathya, Padmaja Sreenivasan, Snigdha Chandra, Anuj Mathew, Rohit Sridhar, Reshwin Nishith, Aneesh Solomon. Nathan plays the woodwinds and Maxwell is on Trumpets in the song.

Pennin Nilai

It has been a long time since Ajaneesh Loknath scored in Tamil, and what a blessing it is to have this talented composer do just that. He along with Bobby CR has produced the track and it is one track that will just emotionally touch you. It seems to be having influences of Raag Sindhubhairavi and Harshika Devanath has become one of my favourite singers these days. She has sung some beautiful melodies for Ajaneesh in Kannada and here is one more to that list. The lyrics are written with great fervour by Palani Bharathi and that too on a very relevant and important topic. The guitar strumming stands out and it is by one fabulous musician Durwin Dsouza I have featured him multiple times. The singing by Harshika scales massive peaks, and the stability and vibrato in her vocals would make any vocalist jealous at this moment. Ajaneesh handles the keyboard programming along with composition and arrangements and we have Midhun Manoj, Naveen Hegde on recording while it is Sajayan Kumar and Renu Digi on mixing and mastering.

Rangarattinam

Pa. Ranjith made the move to Tenma, from Santhosh Narayanan as the music composer for his latest movie, and sometimes when you give a young musician an opportunity they will surprise you in a very positive way. The movie "Irandam Ulagaporin kadaisi gundu" had some good music from Tenma who also creates for the band "Casteless Collective". However "Natchathiram Nagargiradhu" is a few notches up on quality, and I loved this song 'Rangarattinam' as well as 'Perinba Kadhal'. MS Krsna the independent singer-songwriter has lent his vocals for this number and what a fine job he has done. When I heard him and especially watched the video of the song I felt like this is a fresh voice that deserves so much more going forward. Krsna's indie songs have been featured here before by me. There are other vocalists as well in the number viz. Gana Muthu, Sangita Santhosham, Kavitha Gopi and Karthik Manickavasakam. Krsna plays the Kazoo as well as the mouth trumpet with Thamizh Kumaran on the Melodica. If you are wondering who played the guitars, well it is one of the most talented singer/songwriters in the country today Dhruv Visvanath. He simple sizzles on the strumming in the number. Arivu's lyrics are a stamp of his innate talent and he gets the mood and sentiment of the song spot on. Tenma plays the bass and handles the programming. The female and male choir plays an important role in the song and it comprises of Annie Jennifer, Nidhi Saraogi, Padmaja Sreenivasan, Sushmita Narasimhan, Manikandan Chembai, Manoj Krishna, Shridhar Ramesh, Yadu Krishnan K, and the arrangements of the Choir is by Karthik Manickavasagam. The recording engineers are Divine Joseph, Vishnu Raj, Vishnu M Namboothiri, Sean Bout, with Tejas Nair on mixing and mastering. Tenma composes and produces the number with assistants, Siennor, Nandhan Kalaivannan, Thamizh Kumaran and co-ordinators, Hemanth Kumar, Thamizh Kumaran and Gana Muthu.

Thenmozhi

Anirudh proves that he can score aptly for a mass entertainer like Vikram and for a romantic family drama with a very low budget as well. He gets his melody shows on, and gets Santhosh Narayanan with his rustic vocals to perform for this. I would think that this is probably one of Santhosh's best vocal performances to date. Dhanush writes the lyrics and Anirudh composes, arranges, and programs for the track. The song reminds me of Ilaiyaraja's "Thalattu Maari ponathe". The Harmoniums in the song along with bass guitars create an Ilaiyaraja impact along with fantastic rhythms. It is Sajith Sathya who plays the acoustic and bass guitars. The stanza is quite rich in melody and my favourite line musically and lyrically is " Pale inga therala, payasam kekkutha", and this is where I am reminded of another Ilaiyaraja song "Malligamottu manasa thottu". Lalit Talluri plays the flute solo in the interlude and the live percussions are played by Karthik Vamsi with additional rhythm programming by Kalyan.

Un Paarvai

Ranjin Raj is a serious talent and he has one uncompromising desire for melody. I am not sure if this is his debut, but I am certainly hearing his score in Tamil for the first time. This is for the movie 'Cadaver' on Disney Hotstar and he gets two fabulous vocalists on board in Pradeep Kumar and Saindhavi. The keys start things off and it is Ranjin Raj and Antony George handling the programming and arrangements. The song vividly reminds of Ilaiyaraja's "Nee partha paravaikku oru Nandri". The vocals and harmonies add two wonderful layers and in the stanza Saindhavi sings with that sweet innocence we have been longing to hear. Kabilan has penned the lyrics and it is Balu Thankachan on mixing and mastering. The outro is a worthy end to the song with Saindhavi singing the lines and Pradeep getting creative with his aalap in the background.

Unna Paarka

The song is one extremely pleasant yet catchy number that is written, composed and performed by Achu Rajamani, from the movie 'Janakiram'.

The Piano and his voice are all that matter in the beginning and then the song takes a slightly folkish turn but the harmonies are beautifully executed and arranged. After the 90-second mark, the percussions slowly begin and when they gain traction you can't help but move your feet and shoulders in total approval of this number. I do sense some Raag Shankarabharanam owing to the song's resemblance with "Oh Vennila" and "Thendrale" in the movie 'Kadhal Desam'. The guitars and strings arrangements in the background create very deep and enjoyable layers to the melodious number.

Vazhi Ithuthaano

D Imman is certainly having one of those purple patches as he just is having album release after album, and more importantly, the songs are getting better. Imman also ensures someone new is offered up a chance to sing and that is one massive boost to aspiring singers. Ashnaa Sasikaran based in England gives it one "Chandralekha" treatment thanks to her phenomenal voice and controlled aggression in her vocals. Madhan Karky pens the lyrics for this rock-styled number. The use of the Piano, guitars, rhythm programming and trumpets all add essential elements to the final outcome of the song. The version sung by Yazin Nizar also is fantastic as he truly excels in high-pitch singing.

Veeran

He is one undisputed champion of indie music in Tamil Nadu and from time to time he gets his opportunities to score and perform in the movie industry which he grabs with both hands. Examples are "Dharala Prabhu" and "Aelay". Kaber Vasuki has got his style and he doesn't try and imitate any yesteryear genius or modern-day star. Kaber has written, composed and produced the number. There is no way you won't enjoy this fun track with some kick-ass bass by Shallu Varun, and guitars by solid players Sahib Singh, who plays for the 'Castleless Collective'. Just listen to some unexpected magic after the 2nd minute as Rahul Krishnan plays the solo on the flute with the Piano and bass accompanying. Goutham Vasu Venkatesan has done all the additional production along with Kevin Miranda. Wilsto Fredit does the additional rhythm programming and it is Ollie Brown on mixing and Dan Konopka on mastering. Dilip V assist on production.