HANDPICKED LIST OF SOME OF THE BEST TAMIL SONGS RELEASED IN AUGUST 2021 - TAKE A LOOK!

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Arasiyal Kedi

In my opinion this is Govind Vasantha’s most exciting album because he shows varied skills as a composer and every song is truly different from the other. The first single was releases many months ago, but as we all eagerly await the release of the movie, the songs are definitely worth your time. This track has a pop/dance style to it and it works very well thanks to the singing by SidVoc and Bhuvana Ananth in the lead. Sid Voc a.k.a. Sidharth Sudheer calls himself a self-taught vocalist who plays a little guitar, but this guy is does sound modest for sure. Bhuvana Ananth works as a music supervisor with Sam CS and does vocals as well. Karthik Netha is the lyricist who comes up with these interesting lyrics. There was one excellent song two years ago by Ben Human called “Single Superstar” and I am reminded of that song here. Sruthi, Vikram, Mohan and Kiran handle all the rhythm section. Naveen Napier is splendid on the bass guitars. Bhuvana raps like tough tongue twisters which brings an a nice lement. The use of percussion and the brass section is solid as a combination and it all gets elevated when there are harmonies used in the background. Bala’s Nadaswaram plays in the end with some enchanting beats and it makes me think of Govind Vasantha is completely in love with Madhuvanthi raagam. This section is just like the songs he composed viz. “Kanna Thoodhu po da” and Yaatho”. The track is mixed and mastered by Rajan KS and the recording engineer is Avinash Satish.

Ennam Pol Vazhkai

This young lad is a talent worth protecting and I hope for the sake of music he works consistently to create newer sounds and tunes. Edwin Louis Viswanath has composed, arranged, programmed and sung this along with Prithivee as the female lead. This is one more song dedicated to Covid Warriors and all public who battled the pandemic and comes under the U1 banner owned by Yuvan Shankar Raja. Kavitha S writes these inspiring lyrics and also directs the whole video. The song has some solid guitars strumming thanks to Josiah Williams. The anthem is very hummable , thanks to its harmonies and upbeat tempo

Ennoda Chennai

It has become a tradition nowadays when Chennai celebrates it’s birthday, musicians come up with some interesting songs of praise, and a couple of years ago we had Ramshanker S and Anjana compose a very good one, this one by Britto Michael is quite impressive as well. We have the iconic Anthony Dasan who sings as the lead singer and no one can quite deliver a song like this with this kind of panache and style, its tailor-made for him. The words are quite fun and relevant and anyone growing in Chennai would relate to them thanks to Nishanth Raju. The composition is quite unique because other than the portion sung by Anthony, we have a Carnatic Classical element sung by Alka Ajith and then a rap segment by Tony Sebastian. It probably conveys that the city is a melting pot. The use of violins and Nadaswaram is effective.

Ethuvarai

Dheena Dhayalan and Pravin Saivi are name we should get used to because the music that they are making is what defines the future, with the former doing a fabulous job on his album “Kamali from Nadukkaveri” and the latter doing some awesome indie releases. Dheena composes this single and it is sung by Pravin and Anu Anand, of Super Singer Season 8. Anu is probably the best singer this season and one of my favorites. The lyrics are written by G.Ra and the track is mixed, mastered, arranged and produced by Dheena himself. The keys and the vocals of Pravin guide the track in the initial stages and then Anu’s solidity combined with inventive vibrato does the track.  The Sarod intervenes mildly here and there very teasingly and I love how it adds an unmistakable flavor to the track. The lead singers combining in harmony is well arranged with lags in the second layer as well. One probably finds a similarity with “Ishq Bina” by AR Rahman in certain segments of this track.

Irai Thandha

In a movie with multiple musicians especially talented ones, it is difficult to outshine the rest, but Ghibran manages to do that. This is the pick of the songs and after a long wait we have Deepthi Suresh doing the lead vocals who has been a regular in Ghibran’s as well as others’ compositions as a back up vocalist. We have the lyrics by the legendary Gangai Amaran. The track sounds a lot like it is influenced by Chakravaham raaga like that great song “Vidukathaya intha vaazhkai” by AR Rahman. Ghibran handles all the arrangements with assistance from Dr. V Sritharan and Gold Devaraj and all additional song arrangements have been done by LJ Vijay. Rithu Vysakh’s violin makes the perfect ornamentation for the song. The track is mixed and mastered by Chandrasekaran TK. The interlude has a solo violin piece and this sounds more like Charukeshi, and the stanza has many facets with an excellent landing into the pallavi of the song.

Jeeraga Biriyani

Guna Balasubramanian recently composed a lovely number for a Telugu movie called “Thank You Brother” and it is nice to see him do well in a Tamil album now. This is a delightful song sung by Benny Dayal and has an excellent retro feel about it. When I hear this I wonder how amazing the Jeeraga Biriyani would taste and this is all thanks to the lyrics by Jegan Kaviraj. Rhythms become a crucial element in this song and they are all programmed by Vicky Balasubramanian with Krishna Kishore on all additional rhythms. If you notice, the song has a Middle eastern feeling about it as well and that emerges from the World Strings played by Subhani and Keba Jermiah is the solo man on the guitars. The song has a very enjoyable verse as well without sounding hurried and short. Another young talent in Santhosh Jayakaran has gotten all the vocals arranged with mixing by Visakh NB, mastering by Ramji Soma. Lijesh and Akhilesh are the recording engineers.

Kaami Kaami

Until now we had just one amazing song called “kaka ka ki ku ku , kakka ke “ by Ilaiyaraja and sung by SPB to create a fun mood and now we have Kaami Kaami with similar lyrics all beginning with the sound “K”. Govind Vasantha composes and sings this one along with Swasthika Swaminathan. But it is definitely Govind singing, and Karky’s lyrics that take the cake. The beats are just wonderful and the rhythms are taken care of by experts namely Sruthi, Vikram, Kiran Kumar and Mohan. There are a few more superstars in this song and if you pay attention, Naveen Napier’s bass guitars are terrific right through, Vishnu Vijay who is on of the best flautists around plays the solo in the interlude and this portion reminds me of Shanmukhapriya raagam. Finally the guitars sound fabulous and almost American country music like thanks to Durwin Dsouza who is really rising in the indie scene as well. Swasthika comes in late but she impresses quite a bit with that voice of hers sounding like a Sunidhi Chauhan or maybe Vasundhara Das. The child chorus singers are JB Shaswin, B Sanjana, J Raveena, V Jai Suruthi, A Samyukh and GM Chandresh. The track is mixed and mastered by Rajan KS and Abinash Satish is the engineer.

Kanakkalil

Just listen to this beautiful melody and enjoy every note but at the end of it, tell me if you knew these lead singers were not native Tamil speakers. The song is loaded with some excellent instrumentals thanks to music composed and produced by Shubhankar. Kirti Killedar starts off and her vocals are incredibly mellifluous with some impeccable pronunciation. Her vibrato is well done and never overdone. Bala pens the nice words for the track and gets the right emotions of a love track. Kirti sings the entire first stanza with no sign of Hrishikesh Ranade with more than 50% of the song over. But when he sings the second verse, you know this is a track well performed by all the stakeholders. Hrishikesh has a voice that resembles both Haricharan and Abhay Jodpurkar probably with their best parts taken together. The bass guitars, acoustic guitars and strings are all well programmed and arranged and this track is also mixed and mastered by Shubhankar. Harsh Davda shoots the video for this track.

Maya Ulagu

Rijul Chakraborthy is from KMMC and you can sense the quality when he composes and produces music. A few months ago he composed this real smooth lullaby called “Iyarkai”, and now this is a disco/pop number very much like what we heard back in the 1990s. In fact at many times in the song I am reminded of Rick Astley’s “Never gonna give you up”, and this is definitely meant to be a compliment. The vocals are by Priyesh Sivan who does a neat job and the mixing and mastering are by Harish Viswak with Ritwik Chakraborty working on artwork and animation. Rijul does create more expectations for the future with his diverse composition styles and this is something a lot of young composers lack these days.

Neruppa Iruppan

You cannot discount Hip Hop Tamizha anytime, because he will surprise you with a very pleasant and interesting tune once in a while. This really catchy track is composed and written by him and the female lead singer is Padmalatha who never lets a chance go waste when she is offered to sing. The Sarangi is a innovative addition right at the beginning of the track. The song is owned by Padmalatha and her vibrato and style, but Hip Hop Tamizha infuses nice EDM sounds in to this and a lot of credit also goes to the mixing department held by Tapas Nayak and Nikhil Mathews as the engineer.

Nettrikann

Girishh Gopalakrishnan continues to score songs that are grand in arrangements and impact. After the chart-topping “Idhuvum Kadanthu pogum” song last month. It is interesting that Poorvi Koutish was roped in for this song, but to just comment on her diction, she does a wonderful job singing those words in Tamil. After her performances in “99 songs” for AR Rahman, she has become a household name and she will only get more popular in TN after this ravishing display. Vignesh Shivn writes the inspiring words for this one as Girishh arranges the track and works with Ramshanker S on the Synth and Keyboard programming. The way the song gets amped up after the initial parts is wonderful and is helped massively thanks to Siddharth Nagarajan on the drums and the lovely backing vocals which includes Sai Krishna Kumar, Arvind Annest, Shibi Srinivasan, Nishok, Tanvi Shah, Anjana Rajagopalan, Sinduri Vishal, Padmalatha and Medha Ramaswamy. Napier Peter Naveen sizzles on the bass guitars all through but Chennai Strings create a lasting impact with their constant support it is what actually elevates the song’s grandeur. Anjana Rajagopalan does the vocal arrangements and that is a crucial job especially in a song like this with multiple layers of vocals. Shyam Benjamin plays the piano and you can hear the keys in the second layer. Ganesan Sekar is the drum supervisor and all the fabulous electric guitar solos we hear are from Joseph Vijay. Samarth Srinivasan handles the Strings arrangements with Yensone Bagyanathan conducting the Orchestra. Poorvi sings the charanam in the base scale and I only now admire her vocal range which she completely exhibits in this song itself. The track is mixed and mastered by Sai Shravanam.

The Orchestra Members - Kalyan Sundaram, Sheik Imam Saheb, Sebastien P.J, N.P Kerala Kumaran, K. Murali, K. Sasi Kumar, P. Mohan Rao, R. Samson, B. Jaya Chandar, Hemanth Raj Muliyil, P. Basker, Jugfinia Anita Francis, V.R.Sekar, R.K.Vijayendran

Thuniayaai

Udhaya. Kathiravan is consistently good and he doesn’t stray from that quality every single time. If one could just make a playlist of just his tracks composed in the last 2 years it will be pure gold. He is composer and lyricist here and just like he always explores various ragas, here he creates a melody set in Dharmavathi and Madhuvanthi, which are like twin sisters. The opening portion will straight away remind you of “Idhu Sugam Sugam” a superb song by AR Rahman. Lalit Talluri as expected impresses with flute right at the beginning itself and Deepika V delivers a trustworthy and solid vocals performance just like her prior single with the same singer-composer combination. R Sanjay provides an irreplaceable accompaniment on the keys with some intervention at the right instances by Punya Srinivas on the Veena. The role played by Saurabh Joshi on the percussions cannot be downplayed at all as he excels every step of the way between Tabla and other beats as well. Andrew Neet takes care of the lyrics video.

Ulaa

The Non-Violinist Project is a Chennai- based band that has been around for a few years now performing in the city and they have now composed this multi-lingual that is creating a wave. The song was releases in Tamil, Malayalam, Hindi, Kannada and Telugu and what I absolutely lovely about it was that the versions had very similar outputs, and it is not a easy feat considering all 5 versions had different vocalists. The secret to it probably was how identical the 5 vocalists viz. D. Sathyaprakash, KS Harishankar, Abhay Jodhpurkar, Nakul Abhyankar and Gowtham Bharadwaj were in terms of their texture and tonality. The song talks about gratitude and appreciating the smallest pleasures of life and the composition delivers the message perfectly through sound. Josh Mark Raj on the guitars and Sooraj Kumarr on the bass guitar play perfect companions for Sathyaprakash’s unbelievably attractive vocals. Josh takes a brief detour on a guitar solo with Kumaran SS thumping on the drums and you can hear the keyboards in the layers below from Marshall Robinson. As you hear more and more of it you get a feeling the track has some influences of Raaga Behaag, but the composers never really wanted to stay with any particular raaga. I was getting worried whether we will ever hear enough of the Violin at all as the name "Non-Violinist Project" gave me some hints. Just then Shravan Shridhar allays all such fears and goes solo with a fantastic piece with Sathyaprakash also joining with his aalap. This is one wholesome and enjoyable number and kudos to the entire team and Gowtham for entertaining us without compromising on quality. The track is mixed by MT Aditya and mastered by Vivek Thomas and the touching lyrics are written by Vithya Damodaran and Vinaita Sivakumar.

Uyire

Shan Vincent De Paul continues to produce and sing with incredible frequency ad he combines with Yanchan who have already worked together before creating some music called Mridangam Raps. Yanchan is a trained vocalist in Carnatic music and has a flair for percussion like Mridangam, Kanjira and Gatham. He has worked with many Tamil rappers across the globe and these two Canadian musicians create another worthy track here. The words are excellently written and the track is under the maajja label. The track with its singing style reminds me of AR Rahman, and the production with the slow beats, SVDP’s tongue-twisters and the keys and mild Sitar all combine greatly. The lyrics talk about love and the importance of honesty when love does no longer exist between a married couple. It is simple in its structure but does do enough to keep us interested. The outro on the Sitar is intriguing and pacifying.

Vaada Raasa

This is definitely not a bad attempt for a youngster who I known as young actor with an impressive performance in a super hot movie called “Asuran”. Ken Karunaas is the son of a well-known comedian father and a talented singer mother. Ken and Eshwar write, compose and arrange this track, with Ken and is mother Grace Karunaas singing it with total gusto. This is one dance-worthy number with Mani’s bass guitars doing some magic as usual. The highlight also must be the Nadaswaram solos by Balasubramanian and the Tavil played by Silambarasan, and all the wonderful percussion and rhythm by Kumaran SS. The track has a lot of harmony elements as well contributed to by, Eshwar, Jai and Karpagam. The track is produced by Sebastian Sathish and mixed by MT Aditya and mastered by Shadab Rayeen. Vijay Ganesan plays the acoustic and electric guitars.

Vande Mataram

The track is a wonderful Carnatic styled dedication to Mahakavi Bharathi’s great words that will always stand the test of time. Girijashankar Sundaresan is the vocalist here and all the harmonies are arranged and the track is produced by Ravi G. Ishit Kuberkar does the mixing and mastering and this track is dedicated to the people of the land who have been battling covid-19. If you hear it you will know that ther is som inspiration from “Kurai ondrum illa” which was a raagamaliga too. This one is sung excellently by the vocalist and there are influences of Punnagavarali and Brindavani. If this track was created to inspire us, well it does that 100%.

Va Va Kanne

Vibin Bhaskar is one indie musician who does come up with very frequent compositions in Tamil and somehow they have all reached a certain standard of goodness. We have had a few of them right here on the monthly reviews and this one is yet another deserving attempt. The track is sung by Ragu Jairus and it has certain influences of Hindolam Raagam and Madhyavathi Raagam as well and probably a few more. The way the pallavi starts and meanders ahead especially with the thumping slow beats, I was reminded of Sempoove Poove by Ilaiyaraja from the movie Siraichalai. The use of the female harmonies is well arranged and it has Mukhil Mayuri, Annie and Triya. Vinitha Bhaskar handles the artwork