TAKE A DEEP-DIVE INTO THE HANDPICKED LIST OF TAMIL SONGS - SEPTEMBER 2021 EDITION!

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1. Aagayam Mele

Ouseppachan is a renowned musician in Mollywood with some terrific albums to his credit, and even in this album a couple of months ago, we had Keshav Vinodh, which too was a melodious hit and was featured here in this column. The track is a slow lullaby dedicated to love for a father with just a slow tempo helped by traditional beats and guitars and strings. Varsha Renjith is a youngster who has delivered what was expected and required from her as a vocalist. The opening lines are so touching saying Aagayam Mele, Appa nee Keezhe, maybe comparing the whole bhoomi to him. Thamarai does a great job writing these lyrics for the movie album Thaai Nilam. The bass guitars keep playing all along along with the strings acting as commendable accompaniment.

2. Anale Anale & Kanava Kanava

A great composer-singer combination is like having a great crust and a delectable topping together making a delicious pizza. Ghibran is undoubtedly one of the best and the most consistent musicians in the country today and he gets in Haricharan to do the singing honors, Voila great pizza straight off the oven onto your plate! Bon Appetit it is. Gold Devaraj assists Ghibran as usual and Dr. V Sritharan is the supervisor. The Piano is a great addition to Haricharan’s serenading vocals and Hary Nair and LJ Vijay provide all additional song arrangements to Ghibrans overall programming and arrangements. The humming ” pumpum pa pa pa” is so delightful catchy and as expected Ghibran creates beautiful notes in the verse as well especially when the lines go” aadhalai kadhali seivom naame”. The track is mixed and mastered by Abin Paul with Andria Miranda and Britto David doing the production management. N. Idhaya is the lyricist for this track and it is recorded and edited by Wesley and Chandrasekharan TK. The movie album has one more amazing song sung by Namitha Babu, and this further shows that Ghibran doesn’t just compose one good song per album. The lyrics are written by Sri Devi but the show belongs to Namitha with her captivating voice and she just sounds terrific no matter what the scale. The verse is well composed as well.

3. Hey Nee

Sunitha Sarathy still sings with that oomph and dazzling voice that we all remember from “Thoodhu Varuma” so many years ago. Here she will set the stage on fire in this peppy and interesting song composed, arranged and programmed by Ashwin Hemanth. The track in fact gives a feeling of that old song I mentioned about as well. There is Namratha and Ranjana on the backing vocals team with Vignesh Pai as the vocal producer and Velavan as the musician coordinator. There is a lot of programmed music here and the track is mixed by TK  Chandrasekaran, and mastered by Kiran Lal. Harish Jackson creates the lyric video. Vivega has written some interesting lines for this song.

4. Irudhi

Diluckshan Jeyaratnam is a Danish born and bred musician of Sri Lankan Tamil descent and he is a rising star with many accolades to his name. This song is a melody with some engaging lyrics by Dayan Shan and even better singing by Diluckshan. The composer is Kausikan Sivalingam and he is the audio engineer from Germany who works with Yuvan Shankar Raja on many of his. The flute starts playing quite early into the song, performed by Kuruji Muralitharan. The interlude has a Manonmani on the Sarangi and she plays a somber yet delightful solo there. Kausikan has mixed for the track with Ozgur Iki Ikinci is the mastering engineer. Diluckshan himself plays the guitars for this track, and as we head into the verse the song gets elevated with a wonderful notes, arrangements and excellently emotive singing. The recording engineers are S. Ramji, PJ Selvakumar and Vajen Jeyanathan

5. Kaasu & Seera Seera

Krishh is a very talented musician and I was hugely impressed with his devotional album called “vetri Vela”. I am glad but not surprised that this movie album has at least 3 excellent songs and I have picked 2 to be reviewed and recommended as the best of September. The movie has been getting some good reviews as well but the music stands out. I refer to this as something that reminds me of AR Rahman in Kizhakku Cheemayile, which had folk and rural music with repackaged sound. Recently the album Vellai Yanai had some terrific music by Santhosh Narayanan, and I would include “Raman Andalum Ravane Andalum” in this category. Bamba Bakya is phenomenal in delivering this song Kaasu which has male harmonies from Sam Keerthan, Senthil Dass and Velu, and female harmonies fmor Kamalaja, Bhargavi, Nincy and Soumya Mahadevan. Priya Mali also has a special role in the harmonies. To me Suresh on the bass guitars is almost like the hero of the track as he just sizzles playing in an alternate universe altogether and he is also the lead guitarist. Derick does a spectatcular job on all the rhythm programming and all live rhythm. Padma Shankar plays the violin and A Satish is on the flute, which comes delightfully in the end. Bala plays the Nadaswaram and all the mixing and mastering is done by Krishh. The other song I love from his album is “Seera Seera” sung by Mahalingam, Krishh and Rajeshwari. The strings section and synth programming are excellent additions with the female harmonies once again reminding of a AR Rahman touch. Specifically I am reminded of “Manuthu Mandhayile” with the harmonies and beats.

6. Kadhalai Dhinamum Theduthey

Srinisha Jayaseelan is extremely busy these days with very frequent indie singles in Tamil and this one is another wonderful feather to her cap. Sharran Surya is the composer and he has wonderfully fused in some classical Carnatic raaga’s into the tune. There is some influence of Reethigowla and Karaharapriya in the pallavi and Saraswathi in the charanam. Sharran does the keyboard programming and you can hear all the influence of that right from the start, with some help from Edwin Selvaraj in the rhythm programming. Vincent Raj has done all the recording, mixing and mastering. Nathan is splendid as the solo flute player in the interludes. Karthick Subramanian is the lyricist.

7. Kanaa

Haricharan is definitely rising back to his hey days with many songs across south India both in the movie and indie space. Ashwin Sivadas and Sandeep Mohan compose this catchy number and who better could they have chosen to vocally enhance the beauty of the track than Haricharan. Apparently there is an influence of Shankarabharanam Raaga in this track and we get a sense of this more so in the verse when it begins.  The use of the flute played by Nikhil Ram is excellent and it adds to the melody. Sandeep Mohan’s guitars and Ashwin’s programming combine well to give us a fast paced tune. Divyavalli Santhosh is the lyricist. The track is mixed and mastered by Balu Thankachan and Avinash Satish does the recording. Haricharan is at complete ease as the track goes into the higher scales and the we have a perfect finish to the track with Nikhil’s flute solo.

8. Kodaali Kannala

Satish Raghunathan makes two consecutive appearances in the monthly reviews and I am very excited to hear the songs in this album “Choo Mandarakali”. Having listened to two tracks already, I am certain with Kodaali Kannala in this list the other track (Dracula Chellakutti) would make it to next month’s reviews. Satish has composed, arranged and programmed this track and carrying along with him some very talented musicians as well to perform here. Anand Aravindakshan is at the top of his game singing this one which has some similarities to a Maestro composition, with the way the notes fall and rise in the anu pallavi itself. Kiran Kumar’s flute solo with the percussion in the background works wonders. Let us give a big applause to Chandrajith Durairaj for his rhythms, percussion and special FX. Mani on the bass guitars is making a mark at every instant if you pay attention and then we have Embar Kannan on the Violin in the second interlude. There are multiple string instruments being played here like the strings and plucks, which is credited to Amalraj. Keerthana Vaidyanathan is on the backing vocals and mixing and mastering is done by Srinivasan M.

9. Maayakkara

I have been wanting to see more women take over the music composition space in India. I mean why cant they when we have had some dominating like Hildur Guonadottir who scored for “Joker”. Bollywood has Sneha Khanvalkar who had some smashing hits like “Gangs of Wasseypur” and “Detective Byomkesh Bakshi”, but Kollywood needs one and many more women. Is Revaa the answer? I certainly hope so, and she does fabulously in this album called “Mugizh” with one song in this list and another to be featured next month. Govind Vasantha is an excellent singer and we probably forget that because he plays the violin so damn well and composes with seriously good consistency. It is good that Revaa gets him on board along with Malvi Sundaresan who in my opinion has the most attractive voice in the industry today (Just listen to Nira from Takkar a million times). Sumesh Parameshwar impresses as expected on the bass guitars giving all the glamour needed. Naveen Samson plays the additional acoustic guitars with Sumesh, and when the interludes come along we sense a touch of Shankarabharanam raaga. Malvi sings the verse with immaculate poise and style even doing splendidly with some tongue-twisting lyrics by Balaji Tharaneetharan. Sundar Das T and Sai Prakash and Akshay Kakkoth are the recording engineers, while the track is mixed and mastered by Balu Thankachan assisted by Hariharan. One more thing, the use of the whistle is a great addition to the track.

10. Nee Kaanum Kanave

Nivas K Prasanna is a gem of a composer and talent to watch out for. The song Nee Kaanum Kanave starts off in a way that reminds me of “Gurus of peace” from AR Rahman’s “Vande Mataram” album. Nee Kaanum Kanave is also very similar to Shankar Mahadevan’s “Breathless” nt just in style but also in the influence of the Raaga being Yamunakalyani. D Sathyaprakash and Abhishek Ravishankar have a tete-a-tete sort of a contest as lead vocalists with Vanjula Oppili also playing a role as the female vocalist. Nivas has composed, arranged and programmed with Mohan Rajan’s lyrics. Saras Menon has written the English lyrics and all the excellent guitars, we hear are played by Naveen Samson. The track is mixed and mastered by Nirmal JP Xavier

11. Rasavaachiye

OK C. Sathya does it again, and whenever he is handed an opportunity, he grabs it with both hands. Raangi the album had some excellent music, and he follows it up with another fantastically catchy song here. Sid Sriram is playful and sings in a way we would like to see more of and once again we have Mohan Rajan writing some fabulous lines including the title. Raghav Wagh does the rhythm programming and sound design and he deserves a kudos just for the way the track sounds. Even the layered synth programming is of high quality thanks to LJ Vijay. Keba Jeremiah plays the guitars and we have Karthick on the Ghatam and how innovative is that. Award-winning Sai Shravanam mixes and masters the track. All additional vocals belong to Jagadeesh. There is a lot of similarity in the texture of the song to C.Sathya’s own composition called “Lesa Valichudha” which too I absolutely love.

12. Soorayattam

Can you ever keep Santhosh Narayanan out of any review, or ranking? Impossible especially if the song is this good! Folk percussions, Synth programming and singing are of the highest quality. VM Mahalingam and Santhosh himself are the lead singers, with lyrics written effectively by Muthamil. There are two astonishing local percussion groups at play here, viz. Pappambadi Jamma Periyamelam Kuzhu and Pesu Jk kuzhu. Watchout for the trumpets in true SaNa style played by Vijay and we also get to hear the electric guitars by Joseph Vijay. The humming, beats, electric guitars and synth all work phenomenally. Then comes the 45 second exhibition of beats where you just have to shake your body and legs in total trance mode. The track is mixed and mastered by Santhosh with additional mix by Rupendar Venkatesh. Sai Shravanam and Santhosh have recorded the track.

13. Ullare Ullare

Surya Srini composes indie singles in Tamil and Malayalam and though I have liked and reviewed his earlier song, this one clearly deserves to be in this month’s list. We have another start performer who did well in the reality singing show called Super Singer season 8 on Vijay Television who goes by the name Kanimozhi Kabilane. The lyrics are written by Krithiga Seenuvasan. Kanimozhi delivers an enticing performance with an apt support by Surya himself on vocals. Madhav Balachandar’s violin keeps intervening at the right instances and is as an outstanding addition in the scheme of things, with support from Godwin Immanuel on guitars as well as Surya. Swathi Ramachandran and Krithiga Seenuvasan act as backup vocalists as well. Rupendar Venkatesh is the mix advisor

14. Vaanil Poghum Megham

The movies certainly did not garner enough support and good reviews, but I am confident Krishna Kishor has aced this one as a composer. There are at-least a couple of terrific songs in the movie and it is heartening to see Armaan Malik make his move into Kollywood after performing in Telugu recently. The diction is effortless unlike the North Indian singers we are used to. He and Chinmayi Sripada engage us in an excellent number with influences in Dwijavanthi raaga. The first interlude is a fabulous solo on the Shehnai played by one of India’s finest Omkar Dhumal and he also is the music advisor for the album. The percussion played by Krishna himself is quite impactful and we have an interestingly arranged Octave Mandolin played by Bendik Qvam.  Josh Mark Raj plays the acoustic and electric guitars with all additional keys by John Praveen and Navneeth Sundar. Uma devi has written the words and the track is mixed and mastered by Eric Pillai with Michael Edwin Pillai as the mix assistant. The song is enjoyable eve played multiple times on loop and it reminds us of an AR Rahman in his peak.