Top Songs of 2008

The New Year has been tough on my free time, or what was left of it. This post is ideally what I'd have done in the last week of December. But my take is better late than never. My musical's interests diversified this year, thanks to a good friend of mine, because of whom Hindi songs came on to my play list. Also, my experiments with the Guitar (not so successful, though) also made to dust up my rock music collection. But since this is a chronology based list, I'm limiting it to Indian releases.

1. Adiye Kolludhey - Vaaranam Aayiram -  Sung by: Krish and Shruti Haassan
The lyrics, the tempo and the (inspired from AC/DC?) guitar riff makes this song an ideal one to play when you are doing your daily run.The sore point of this song, is of course Shruti Haasan whose voice is definitely not for tamizh duets. Krish's digitally altered voice also sounds more feminine, but overall this song is a terrific mood booster, at least for me. (And the reason I rank it at 1 is because, at heart, I'm a Tamizh Veriyan)

adiyae_kolluthae.mp3 -


2. Kabhi Kabhi Aditi - Jaane Tu Ya Jaane Na - Rashid Ali
The lead guitar is one of the most catchy ones that I've listened to. The song is awesomely cute (now, that makes me sound gay, which I'm not FYI) and deservedly was a monster hit across all my friends circle.

3. Jaane Tu Ya Jaane Na - Jaane Tu... - Sung By: A.R. Rahman
An awesome jazz inspired song. I wish I could sound so youthful when I'm in my 40's. Rahman's soft vocals adds to the soft jazz effect - the overall effect is that the song flows all around you, much like a stream (while Adiye Kolludhey is like a White Water rafting experience)

4. Nenjukkul Peidhidum - Vaaranam Ayiram - Sung by; Hariharan
This guy's voice with all its majesty has a quality to it that I've not seen replicated by any other playback singer (I said the quality - SPB's voice has 'another' quality - I can't find the exact lexical equivalent of what I think, but I hope you get the overall gist). Again, the guitar (of course its digitally synchronized guitar) is quite good too.

5. Kangal Irandal - Subramaniapuram - Sung by: Belly Raj, Deepa Mariam
The Y connection to this song notwithstanding, this rendition of reethigowlai is quite good - even if not in the same league as Azhagaana Rakshasiye or Chinna Kannan Azhaikkiran. But I have tried listening to this song in different versions (the MP3's quality) where I think James Vasanthan's inexperience shows as the bass and treble settings are awry.

6. Aazhiyile - Dhaam Dhoom - Sung By: Haricharan
A very good semi-classical rendition. Would have been a massive hit if not for HJ's inefficacy with the accompanying instruments.

7. In Lamhon, Manamohana and Khwaja - Jodha Akbar - Composer: A. R. Rahman
A.R. Rahman proved that his music is not all glitz and glamor with a classical album like this.

8. Taxi Taxi - Sakkaraikatti - Composer: A.R. Rahman
Super techno beats and synthesized music at its best.

9. O Saaya - Slumdog Millionaire - Composer: A.R. Rahman
If music can be exhilarating, then this definitely gets itself classified as that.

10.  Guzarish and Kaise Mujhe from Ghajini - A.R. Rahman
Superb songs both of them and the lyrics of Kaise Mujhe makes it enter this list. On the whole, a very good year for ARR - The Mozart from Madras.

Miscellaneous - Worthy of a mention
      a. Kathaazha Kannale from Anjaadhey - quite catchy tune and beat - Decent Kuththu paatu - against the  
          run-of-the-mill kinds like Dandarna and all that crap.
      b. Dosth bada Dosth-u from Saroja - Quite hummable number
      c. Meherban, Gulfisha and gumsum in Ada - the 'worst' album from ARR this year. Rahman's form in
          2008 = His form in 1999-2000 = Sachin Tendulkar's 1998 purple patch.