Unbelievable....amazing...astounding.....mindblowing....awesome.....AR Rsomehow manages to keep blowing us away with his magical compositions and I just can't believe what a feast this is for us fans! Is there any musical hat that this man CANNOT wear? How the heck can one person compose a Jodha Akbar, Ada, and Jaane Tu and much much more all in a single lifetime? Not going to give a song by song review of Ada, but want to share my overwhelming thoughts and feelings.
ADA This is by far the most passionate, stylish, sleek, sonically contemporary, and lushest arrangement wise album we have heard from ARR in a while. The album has such a beautiful flow from song to song......truly a remarkable journey of sound and intricate sonic sculptures ecapsulated by haunting melodies and the best of both worlds of vintage and modern ARR. There is a spontaneity in this album that I have been missing from ARR recently and which harkens back to his earlier days...quite nostalgic indeed. In terms of musical concepts, this is one of his most brilliant works. There are incredible interludes everywhere with unpredictable twists and turns within each composition that surprises the listener and takes you deeper and deeper into musical bliss. Lots of classical dynamics with contrasting moods as dissonance is juxtaposed with resoultion and open-ness from interlude to antara and back (eg., second interlude of Dar Hai with duduk and dark, musical dissonance which resolves brilliantly into an open and exhilirating second antara.......also heard in female Ishq Ada). Man, check out the range of sound on this album not only in terms of acoustic instrumentation, but as a friend rightly pointed out, innovative synth sounds and soundscapes!!!! There are beautiful raaga based melodies combined with multicultural and ethnic influences as Swaps rightly explained with Latin, Spanish, Mediterranean, and Eastern European musical styles all thrown in. The singing is fantastic and wide ranging and I am so impressed wiht Parul Mishra's rendition of Ishq Ada....she sounds like a veteran singer....so mature, precise, with great tone and feeling! The lyrics nicely complement the music at each turn! Meherbaan is sung so beautifully by Rahman and this style of ballad suits him so well and I just love the electric guitar solo in the instrumental version! Surely a difficult album to review concisely. It's a classy, classy album that music lovers will enjoy but I am not too sure about its commercial prospects since there are unusual and unconventional musical styles, sounds, structures, etc that a common person may find a bit too foreign sounding or out of his schematic realm to make ssnse of. Nevertheless, another highlight of Rahman's career is bestowed before us and I cannot be more proud to be a Rahman fan than I am today. HAIL TO THE MAESTRO!!!!!
