My Favorites from VH1's Top 40 of 2005

In no specific order, here are my favorites:

Black Eyed Peas - "Lumps" <--- Pretty cool song
Foo Fighter - "Best of You"
Dave Matthews Band - "American Baby"
Gwen - "Rich Girl" <--- Gwen and Eve are a success formula, remember their "Let me Blow ya Mind"?
Will Smith - "Switch" <--- Infectious
Green Day - "Wake me up" <--- Good Rock Song
Madonna - "Hung Up" <--- Magical
Kanye West - "Gold Digger" <--- Extremely Infectious
Shakira - "La Tortura (With Alejandro Sanz)" <--- Cool song
Gwen Stefani - "Hollaback Girl" <--- An alright song
Green Day - "Boulevard of Broken Dreams" <--- Another good Rock Song
Weezer - "Beverly Hills" <--- Good one
Black Eyed Peas - "Don't Phunk With My Heart" <--- Another good song from BEP

Following are other songs that I liked (not on the VH1 list)
Akon - "Belly Dancer (Bananza)" <--- Infectious
Snoop Dog - "Drop it like it's hot" <--- Doggie Dog is just too good
Daddy Yankee - "Gasolina" <--- One word, Reggatone
James Blunt - "You're Beautiful" <--- Good song
Daddy Yankee - "Rompe" <--- Another of Daddy yankee's good song

Time permitting, will jot down my other favorites for 2005 in Hindi and Tamil.

Music Review - Rang De Basanti

Rang De Basanti: Rahman is slowly getting back to his grove, after his abysmal music in "The Rising". That was a total letdown, this one seems much better - but just like the other songs of Rahman, one will start to have a liking only after multiple listenings. But in this movie there are some instant catch-ons, for instance, "Paatshala", a peppy song sung by Aslam and Naresh Iyer. The other version of this song (Paatshala - Be a Rebel) features Blaaze along with the other two. Blaaze is considered the Indian version of the famed, Shaggy. He actually is featured in a lot of college/hip-hop kind of songs in the recent Rahman movies (plus other MDs as well).

"Rang De Basanti" is another interesting song which has a peppy-westernized-punju feel to it. It's sung by Daler Mahendi and the South-Indian singer Chitra (I had been to one of Daler's concerts in Madras and the host of that show was Javed Jaffrey. That's when I knew first-hand about the talents of Javed Jaffrey...he was able to keep the crowd in complete control with his jokes and anecdotes. In that he mentioned that Daler Mahendi should be called Dollar Mahendi - that was when Daler was at his peak).

For some reason, there's a lot of craze for middle-eastern music in the recent times, and this movie does have a track to cover that area as well. "Khalbali" sung by Aslam, Nacim and the Guruji Rahman himself. The best thing that I like about Rahman's music is his extreme talent in using the right voices for a song. Like other MDs (read as Anu Malik) he doesnt sing a song unless it suits his voice absolutely well. He adds a superb touch to this song with his excellent voice. He has also sung "Roobaro" along with Naresh Iyer. Another good trend that Rahman pioneered is getting in fresh voices to the Indian music industry. I see a lot of fresh and strong voices in this movie, just like his other ones. Another musical marvel that Rahman introduced to the Indian music industry is Madhushree, the most recent nightingale. Btw, Rahman was the one who gave her this name, her name was Sujata Bhattacharya before. I started noticing her after her amazing performance in Tehzeeb. I am actually surprised about the fact that she's mostly remained in Rahman's camp and not many MDs are using her vocal talents. There are two female singers whom I absolutely love, regardless of how bad the song is - one is Madhushree and the other is Harini (Tamil singer). Another song which features Lata Mangeshkar and the Guruji Rahman is "Luka chuppi". A couple of years ago, I was totally annoyed at hearing Lata Maneshkar's voice (and the South-Indian singer Chitra's as well), as she was featured in almost all the songs at that time. But after hearing her in Rahman's music my view has changed a bit. He somehow brings a new side of a singer with most of his songs. Now I dont mind listening to Lata (or Chitra), especially if it's a Rahman's movie.

On the whole, this is a good album with a mix of trendy and melodious songs and will certainly make a good listening in your car or your stereo system.

Music Reviews

Among the recent ones that I listened to, some of the good ones include Bluffmaster (Hindi), Barsaat (Hindi), Chinna (Tamil), Noori (Paki-Rock), and of course, Rang De Basanti (Hindi). Here are my favorites:

Bluffmaster: Starring Abhishek and Priyanka with Ritesh and Nana Patekar as well. The music by Vishal-Shekar is really good. My favorite (I would have listened to it atleast 50 or so times so far and I listen to it almost everyday) is "Sabse Bada Rupaiya", a remixed song. The video looks cool too. It's got a cool beat to it, which gives it a 60s-70s disco feel. The next favorite is "Right Here Right Now", sung by Abhishek and Sunidhi. This is an amazing song with contrasting tones from the singers that complement themselves each other very well. The hip hop remix version has a little more coolness than the original version and is even better. The other good song is the "Boro Boro" song which has persian lyrics. It seems this song hit the Swedish No.1 spot.

Barsaat: Another good song that I missed in my previous reviews is "Nakhre" sung by Alisha Chinoy and Ishq. The Music is very good, has a good beat and this is bound to be a favorite in discos.

Chinna: Tholaidoora Nilave is a foot-tapping song that is beautifully directed by Music Dir. Imman. Another of my favorite.

Noori: Listened to this pakistani rock band for the first time and instantly liked their song "Bol" in their album "Suno Ke Main Hun Jawan". This song starts off with a familiar Creed-like music, but as soon as you start listening to it, you will be immersed in the music. The one thing that I really like about the Pakistani Pop or Rock bands is their strong vocal skills. Most of the bands that I have heard (Junoon, Fuzon, Jal, etc.) have a good leading vocalist and their music overall is good as well. Noori's latest album "Peeli Patti Aur Raja Jane" is also good. The song "Mere Log" from that album is a slow song with excellent music. I have not listened to it completely yet, but I keep seeing songs from that album in my Cable. I get AZN channel on my cable and there is a Paki-music program on weekends (hosted by a very obnoxious female host, Aman) which keeps me up-to-date with the latest in Paki-music.

Rang De Basanti: Since this is already a fairly large-sized post, I am posting this review seperately. Look above this post and you will see it.

Sarbox Sucks!