Raja's New Albums

LOVE AND LOVE ONLY

In Celebration of Maestro Ilaiyaraaja winning another National Award for his background score, we are releasing the complete soundtrack album of "Love and Love Only" (over 60 minutes of content) as Audio CD and Digital Downloads.
PRE-ORDERS OPEN NOW on our official website
http://www.loveandloveonly.movie/#!music-store/c61v

Pre-Order & Support the National Award Winning BGM Audio CD of Tharai Thappattai:

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1n6gClmo2VUOb6EzRTKiUGLtyDVhz98fS6osweFidOOo/viewform?c=0&w=1


Dear Fans of Maestro Sri Ilaiyaraaja, on behalf of all the fans of Maestro, I sincerely request you to support the commendable initiative of Think Music by Pre-Ordering a CD. The Sales of this CD could motivate other Audio Companies and even Small Producers to come out with such BGM releases in the near future.
As many of you know, we have a dedicated group of Maestro's CD Collectors and we have been buying all the CD's since the release of Swappnam in 2014. Our Group has already placed an order of 150 CD's to the Distributor of Think Music. We are keen to include new fans into the Collectors Group through this CD.

Any idea when is the audio of Amma Kanakku releasing? The hindi version is out and the film too released.

selavu 60 lacs varavu 2.5 cr

appA / IR / BGM / One song...

Any festival is an ambassador of peace and harmony. It has been used to another extent of extreme violence in films which is a different story. Festivals are not only to thank God for a good year but it also provides a golden opportunity to dissolve any differences of opinion, ego, enmity, evil among the people to ashes deep inside the earth only to nurture, embrace and blossom as beautiful flowers to make a divine garland for the God. Every flower is unique, but when it makes into a divine garland, it becomes even more beautiful as it contains the inherent harmony of beauty and fragrance just like the inherent harmony of hearts and minds of people.

Any village festival without Maestro’s music is dumb, dumber, and dumbest. When it comes to composing festival songs for films, there is no parallel to Maestro and we have witnessed this completely in the last 4 decades, the secret being the harmony. Maestro’s seamless interpretation of melody, lyric and orchestration with the milieu, human minds and moods is always extra-ordinary. The harmony is very special because, it is not just the harmony of musical components (to appreciate just the musical aspects), but it is the mapping of such musical components to reality that gives the harmony a 3D effect, even when we are only listening to a composition rather than viewing and listening. Even when Maestro is the undisputed king of folk and native music, he does take his place for granted. Right from 70s to his latest films all the songs he composed has a unique touch and flavor even when he does it daily, because it is the mother’s recipe.

When people complain that they miss the ‘wholesome’ experience in Maestro’s recent compositions, I guess they always take 80s/90s as some kind of benchmark when listening to his today’s compositions. It is not wrong in that sense, but the same people would complain (and complained) if Maestro sticks to similar parameters again. Definitely “genuine” (again “genuine” word is itself debatable to some, just like memorable word was for some) comparisons help redefine their tastes, no doubts, but when it goes to extremes, that is where it becomes a problem (as they cannot enjoy anything that is new), as they cannot see anything new that is being offered, as they always seek 80s/90s analogy and fail miserably on Raja, us and them. It is not only true to music, it applies everywhere.

There are so many recent compositions which hold really well and even exceed Maestro’s yesteryear compositions; just that it is not reachable by default, and we have to reach it. I definitely know many IR fans (who got stuck up in 80s/90s) would not even have given ears to this composition, even if they did, they would have dismissed summarily immediately. Such is the passion and their benchmarks. The composition brings several aspects of harmony to the floor.

The composition I am going to talk about has a similar feel to kumbam karai sErththa thangayya. I even ask how many appreciated this title song of kumbakkarai thangayya that time. I know those days; even this song and other songs in this film were not that popular or recognized compared to pAttu unna izhukuthA and pooththu pooththu kulunguthadi poovu, even though everyone of them has to be celebrated with aplomb. Did we do that? Reason, we took Maestro for granted as we were poured with tons of songs every day, that time, we took cautious and clever effort to select and appreciate only the highest ones (which we consider the best) disregarding other deserving gems like these. How many? Not just in 100s, in 1000s we ignored. It is even taken as a pride to only talk about those 2-3 songs per film claiming as Maestro’s fans. Maestro gave us that much liberty right? Who else can give us that liberty? Who else can give that many libraries of songs to choose from to form a different playlist every day? That kind of liberty gives us more liberty to even criticize his recent efforts in a rather disheartening way. How sad and how cruel this world is!

Why I chose this composition? I read some reviews on this film. One said, they did not see Raja at all in the film until this song was played, where they recognized Raja. It is a natural statement for those, who completely forgot Raja in recent years, and his recent compositions. They recognized him in this composition because it had some similarities to his 80s/90s output; the flow of the tune, original and native orchestration used and most of all it is a folk song. So I would like to go in their way and expose what they were missing to listen.

This composition in particular has all the signature of his 90s output, but he still added many interesting twists and turns which was even missing in some of his 80s/90s compositions. The starting nAyanam ,thavil and urumi adds the festival outbursts. Hear the prelude till 33 seconds. It has taken the festival heat on its own shoulders. Heart-warming prelude! The prelude does not end there. The songs melody is still unreachable. If we map the prelude to reality, we can relate to people thronging to the festival arena, pushing with the crowd. Once they reach the arena, that’s where Maestro changes the path to get ready for the melody. The switch-over @34th second is pulsating to say the least! Next 15 seconds gets us close to the God and divinity with Maestro slowing down the rhythm right in time for the melody to take over. For a 5 minute song, we have 48 second prelude! What else you need!!

Even though the song is about thanking the Goddess, it also talks about the nature of the village and its people, their fun loving, but honest attitude, their love and romance for their women. It is a combined treat of worship and their people.

Pallavi is very catchy, but the way Maestro tuned the anu-pallavi is very interesting. The first anu-pallavi is sung by female, while the second (yes there are two anu-pallavi’s) one is sung by male chorus.

The time when pallavi repeats and completes the taking over by flute is mesmerizing. It feels like we are taking a detour, but how! It gives the song a beautiful soul. The nAyanam and ururmi (which plays after that) gives the rustic feel compared to the soft feel provided by the flute. I would tend to think flute as the metaphor for female and nAyanam for male complementing each other in dance & singing. We also got santoor (digital) to end the 1st interlude to give lead to charaNam. The detour ended!
CharaNam starts in a most energetic way, but how it succumbs to soft nature when these lines are sung:
அட தேவதைகள் கூடும் ஒரு திருவிழாவப் போல
இளம் பூவையர்கள் கூடி வந்து சாய்க்கிறாக ஆள
அட வானவெடி போல மனம் காலி ஆச்சு பொண்ணால

With flute linking each line, it cannot get better than this. So sweet to hear! Hear how Santhosh and the gang sing the first two lines above in a soft manner, while thrusting more energy in the third line accenting each word beautifully to express their mood. Then Maestro sneaks in the anu-pallavi tune in last two lines of charaNam to connect to pallavi beautifully.

The best part of the composition hides in the second interlude where we are in for the biggest detour of the composition. The composition peaks up with high energy chorus, nAyanam and percussion, but the way it dips down suddenly to flute and synthesizer is nothing sort of magic. Most fascinating detour and merge!
Wherever you turn, there is melody, being it in pallavi-anupallavi or in the orchestration, and the way each one of them connects and complements is exactly what Maestro envisioned what happens in a festival where people of various kinds meet and exchange greetings with each other in harmony.

என் நெஞ்சுக்குள்ள காதல் வந்து காட்டுதடா மாலை
இவ சாமி பாக்கும் சாக்குல தான் சாவடிக்கிறா கண்ணால

Another highlight of the composition is, it just not focuses on worship; it also speaks about culture, their nature, and love. While the female portions are mostly about worship, male portions mostly talk about love. The last line above summarizes the atmosphere beautifully. Nicely written by Ekadasi and nicely sung by Santhosh (of super singer fame) and Rita. Yes, if we are expecting SPB and S Janaki, definitely it is not there, but it has all other elements of 90s classic, if you wish to listen honestly. Melody is so sweet and the arrangements so native'ly weaved that it thoroughly complements the melody which gives a ‘wholesome’ experience of festiveness. Added to that, he even diversified the composition by adding more twists and turns for current generation but keeping it simple and easy on ears. But the question remains, the same fans who are stuck in 80s/90s have not even uttered any word on this composition as I am sure they would not even heard this composition. Even if they did, they will still say it is like 80s/90s with no valid reasons. We are stumped as usual. We have to live with that.

Entha ooru pOnaalum - Oyee

Bought 'Love & Love Only' CD. I have been listening to it for the past more than a week and I can assure you it is Love & Love Only for this album. An intimate and warm album. Sort of opposite of the dark OAK. You will need to give it a patient hearing before it seeps into you. If you love a bit of WCM, you must get this album. 

Kiru, are you listening?

Sureshji, could you pls let me know from where you got hold of the CD of "Love And Love only " ? Thank you.

Hi Mythila,

There are two ways of getting it. One, you can download from iTunes if you use iTunes. Second is the ever resourceful Kameshji of our group. If you want you can contact him and me through PM and we will ensure you get a copy.

I certainly do not believe that Maestro is 73 years old now. As he expressed in one of his recent interviews (with Gautham Menon), “நான் முழுக்க முழுக்க ரொமான்ஸ்தான்” when he was asked about love and romance in his life. Aniyaaththukku youth and romance I literally envy him How come a man can deliver such a tender(est), subtle(est) feeling of love when he has toughened his heart so much due to the non-amicable society he is living on? And how much contrast in expressing love in rustic Thaarai Thappattai and this film? Billion worlds apart!

If I start picking my most favorite musical pieces in this film soundtrack, I have to pick every note that I have been listening. Once I got hold of my CD, for the past 3 weeks I have only been listening to this soundtrack whenever I find time, still I am not done with it, and I don’t think I can leave it aside any time soon. Precious one hour and every hour when I am with it.

The soundtrack has a gentle mix of guitar, piano, french horn, violins, arresting cellos, flute and some very new gentle sounds akin to the tenderness of lovers’ heart . The resulting harmony is best described when we rewind the soundtrack in our hearts after we listen to it. I wake up from the bed daily to this harmony without even music playing. Even though the music is so tender, it is also that deep that it attacks our sub-conscious. The recurring theme (and song) is so mesmerizing that it comes in different flavors and conveys variety of moods that still my heart longs for more and more of that. It touches almost the remotest cells of mine which were never woken up before in all my life. The sophistication, stylishness, softness, trendiness, youthfulness all mixed in a thoroughly artistic and impeccable manner that when we get absorbed by it (her), we cannot help falling in love with that girl; music of the film that is. The music makes us feel ever young. The way the music caresses us is akin to a gentle breeze caressing us. So subtle, gentle and finesse.

Another best thing about this soundtrack is the length of musical pieces. Except for couple of them, all others are of good length even up to 6 minutes, so that we can get ourselves completely soaked into it.

Definitely this soundtrack deserves a separate thread, but will wait for the movie release so that we get that complete visual experience too. This soundtrack alone is enough for the rest of my life, such a serene masterpiece. Can't thank Julian Karikalan enough for releasing this musical marvel officially, a first of its kind. Please don't miss it. If you are missing this, it is like you are missing your life.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KuB8bZNlcW8&index=12&list=PLupjmrU0ONy2Jlpu9bGzgkuH3fBkVqXpl

VS,

Good writeup.

For the past few weeks I have the same problem. I am only listening to this album. It is top notch.

Thanks Sureshji. Yes, this soundtrack is yet another (countless) milestone for Maestro. I still can't express its beauty. உண்மையான காதலை போலவே பரிசுத்தமான இசை!

ammA kaNakku album:
http://www.saavn.com/p/album/tamil/Amma-Kanakku-2016/VJQaC9IKJyI_

(link courtesy Nerd, on Twitter )

Amma kanakku..

Love the melodies....

1) Maths Tough - என்ன பாடுறாங்கன்னு தான் புரியல!! சுத்தமா புரியல! Reminds me of "அத்தான் வருவாக" !! 

2) Unakkum enakkum, 3) kadavul padaippil

பாடல் வரிகள் தான் கடுப்பைக் கெளப்புது !! பாட்டையே கெடுக்குது!!  

"குழந்தை போல மனதை நாம் பாதுகாக்க வேண்டும்." ...

Is it a school Prayer song like "ஒளி படைத்த கண்ணினாய் வா வா"?

4) Indha vazhkai 

Love the song... But very short... And lyrics pretty ordinary!!

My beloved Raaja,

வரிகளால் உன் பாடல் கெடுதைய்யா! அதை கொஞ்சம் என்னான்னு பாருங்க!

Manoj Raj wrote:Amma kanakku..

Love the song... But very short... And lyrics pretty ordinary!!

My beloved Raaja,

வரிகளால் உன் பாடல் கெடுதைய்யா! அதை கொஞ்சம் என்னான்னு பாருங்க!

Seems like a low budget movie, with low production values. IR seems to be following a pricing policy like big corporations like samsung stripping down features in the low end phones, even if you dont buy just using devices even casually can only create irritation and frustration. Now that we have tasted the high end like NEPV, Megha .. difficult to digest amma kanakku.

Amma Kanakku

1. Nice Piano tune with variations in couple of songs
2. Surprises with totally new style in one song where vocals first then followed but lenghty tune ending (no interludes)

Listened to Amma KaNNakku.

Maths tough - Great start with guitar. Lively tune. Mridangam adds to the fun, except I find it hard to understand the lyrics and it touches the other boundary in singing. Nice singing though. You know me and RAP how close we are  The interlude after the rap portion, especially the violins is too good. CharaNam gets the song better. I love the energy in the song. Curious to know the situation of this song or is it the title song? Should be a montage song.

Unakkum Enakkum - Prelude is beautiful. Tune-wise it is not a great one, but the harmony portions hides the plain tune cleverly. Yes, the lyrics is quite ordinary for the situation which expresses the dream of poor mother and her daughter. The voice which emerges out of the song is so clear which is another thing I like about it. Nicely sung. The soul which comes out of piano playing is enough for rewinding the song. Somehow I felt the song ended abruptly. The song sounds little bit like intha ulagil naan irunthaalum from Madhu. May be the soul.

KadavuL Padaippil - Now I know why the previous song ended abruptly, only to take over by this version. The second interlude in the above song is the postlude for this song. This portion is a real healer.

KanavugaL - Too short. It could have become a wonderful song. Why?

Indha Vaazhkkai - Another healthy seed grows into a beautiful plant which has all the natural (re)sources to blossom into a beautiful flower only to die prematurely as a bud. Such a beautiful idea failed to transform into a breath-taking composition. How harsh it would be to say a quarter song of 1:21 minutes is the best of album?

How it would be if we are seeing a film teaser and the director says, it is not a teaser, it is the entire film. Such was the shock for me  I could not grasp any song completely and before I could, it gets over. Four songs in 11:21 minutes. Is this Raja's shortest album? May be more in store in the form of background score. Let's wait and see.

Back to Love and Love only 

Prolific as always, next movie muhurat done:
http://newstodaynet.com/entertainment/horror-thriller-ammayi-ilayaraja-special

"ammAyi" - makkaLE, please spare IR of these ammA-appA stuff - hasn't he done 100's of these? 

We want some modernized classical / non-emotional crafty stuff etc. - such projects could give him some new challenges, resulting in entirely new stuff...

V_S - Great writeup on Love and Love only soundtrack. Have been listening to the whole album for the last few days and it's very hard to listen to anything else. I'm very eager to see the movie as well just to see the impact of the score (hoping it won't end up like Megha).

App - Raaja is scoring for a horror movie after a long time. I have huge expectations of the score. How I wished Raaja could have scored for Myshkin's Pisaasu (even though Arul's score was competent enough).

Disclaimer: Video may not be for weak hearted 

Today’s ear worm. While the whole world is warming up to Kabali today, I am all in the “Game” too, but a different game in my own backyard. Sipping a tasteful tea in the evening at the same time doing all the weekend domestic work right from pulling out weeds to landscaping to lawn mowing and of course busy chasing butterflies and photographing beautiful flowers. All this with a simple, pristine, elegant, soulful melody with no outside pomp or festiveness. Any other type of songs would have killed my evening. Instead Maestro connects us with nature and builds all the festiveness and wisdom inside us rather than going all the way to impress the crowd. Impressing the crowd is way different than crowd getting impressed and Maestro always belong to the latter.

A romantic duet which brings the youthful exuberance with its romantic beats and a trendy pallavi/anupallavi. What a sweet start to the song! The flute which continues during the interlude with some colorful chromatic progression brings all the summer colors and the voices of birds in front of us. The bass at the end sounds like the sound of the humming bee. CharaNam gets even more better with some in-depth soul in the melody. The way it goes up and down beautifully is similar to the butterfly hoping from branch to branch, plant to plant, as we (lovers chase each other) chase them. Finally we let them go into their free world, is exactly how these final two lines of charaNam was constructed; hELalagathu ee ullaasa ellareeritha ee santhOshaa, olavali hruthayavaa kaLariruvE. My eyes well up. What a dramatic start and finish in these two lines. Sweet quotient*n times. n being infinity. The pause after that is something beyond extra-ordinary. Solo violin takes over with more strings accompany (in second interlude) further depicting the journey of our minds just like the journey of a butterfly. No one is alone. Some mysterious sounds with slap bass add to the mystery our life journey. Powerful interlude this! Lovely composition and lovely singing by both Karthik and Priya.

 It’s all in the game, but this game and world is entirely different. It is the one we choose and not someone chose for us. The joy, pomp and festiveness it brings inside us is not to be revealed, but only to be experienced and can only be experienced. "Indian" film album of the year so far. The songs and score will play in my playlist for a long long to time.

^^^  As I listen to this super funky track, immediate Foolishq vibe.  Another example of IR returning to an earlier experiment to refine and perfect it? I definitely preferred the production and arrangements on Foolishq (this one has some of the jarring harshness of the 90s, esp the beats), but the melody is, once again, in the sweet spot.  So is it safe to say we are going to have vintage Raja for Kannada/Telugu scores while he gets more up to speed with contemporary for Hindi/Tamil?

what happened to the Punjabi remake of Mouna Ragam which IR had signed up?

After Happi it is the next to release.. ;-)

kiru wrote:
Seems like a low budget movie, with low production values. IR seems to be following a pricing policy like big corporations like samsung stripping down features in the low end phones, even if you dont buy just using devices even casually can only create irritation and frustration. Now that we have tasted the high end like NEPV, Megha .. difficult to digest amma kanakku.

Def sounds like cut price Raja album. Bland with a capital B...I have never heard a Raja album sound so bland.  I can understand jarring/too masala etc etc because at least that indicates signs of life.  This sounds like the Pink Floyd album which has a song by the same name (Signs of life).  Either he was super bored or it was outsourced to China.  Amazingly, recording sounds pretty good.  Yeah, like an ad jingle would. Even the piano bit in Unnakkum was totally uninteresting.  Come on, something more than a one note piano motif.  Simplicity la ellam azhagu irruku naalum idhu too much three much.

I had completely missed the discussion about this album (which in itself is telling).  Then when Baradwaj Rangan reviewed the film, I was like, "What, this film had Raja's music?" Didn't miss much, I guess.

when V_S himself feels meh about a soundtrack you know that it isn't going to work for anybody else :-)

But seriously this is how I have felt about most of his works in the past 10-15 yrs, especially in TFM. I mentioned it here sometime back and a couple of folks came up with a laundry list of songs most of which didn't work for me.

Megha/NEPV might be fine, or "high-end" (though not all songs in them ) but how many songs like kaLvane or satru munbu has been done in the last 15 yrs? Or even a kannil paarvai from Naan kadavuL.
I am not really sure what is going through his mind these days. And why does he still accept to do movies for filmmakers like Velu Prabhakaran and such well beyond the 90s.

counterpoint wrote:when V_S himself feels meh about a soundtrack you know that it isn't going to work for anybody else :-)

But seriously this is how I have felt about most of his works in the past 10-15 yrs, especially in TFM. I mentioned it here sometime back and a couple of folks came up with a laundry list of songs most of which didn't work for me.

Megha/NEPV might be fine, or "high-end" (though not all songs in them ) but how many songs like kaLvane or satru munbu has been done in the last 15 yrs? Or even a kannil paarvai from Naan kadavuL.
I am not really sure what is going through his mind these days. And why does he still accept to do movies for filmmakers like Velu Prabhakaran and such well beyond the 90s.

The noughties started promisingly enough with Azhagi. Ivvan had the brilliant Appidi Parkirathellamm Venam.  Then Virumaandi-Pithamagan-Thiruvasagam solid purple patch which halted with Mumbai Xpress.  In the middle were Julie Ganapathy and Konji Pesalam, dud films with good songs.  But after M Exp, suddenly the meh albums began to overflow. Oru Naal Oru Kanavu disappointed a lot of people at the time though Khajiraho was eventually accepted.  Adhu Oru Kanaakaalam was even worse.  HOWEVER, when I was in Chennai last month, I heard Andha Naal Nyabagam on the radio and it sounds like a masterpiece compared to Amma Kanakku.  Seriously, hearing is believing in this case.  This is a new low.  Not that any of the tracks are bad per se but just terribly underwhelming and devoid of life.  So I do sort of agree with you that the noughties have been up and down (while I prefer to focus on the highs since anything great from Raja at this stage after so many films is a bonus) but at the same time Amma Kanakku defeats even the eternal optimist (VS being one such).