Modern Love Chennai Music Album Review: The soundtrack album of Amazon Prime’s upcoming original series, featuring Maestro Ilaiyaraaja, Yuvan Shankar Raja, G. V. Prakash Kumar, and Sean Roldan is one of the most unexpected combinations of the year. With 13 songs in total, the album really lived up to some of its expectations. After successful Mumbai and Hyderabad versions of the series, the episodic show is now focusing on Chennai and its love stories.
The songwriters are none other than iconic Yuga Bharathi and Bakkiyam Sankar, who are well known for songs like Yembuttu Irukkuthu Aasai, Manmadha Raasa, and Doomangoli. Along with them, the tracks feature singers, namely Shivani Pannerselvam, Vagu Mazan, Ramya Nambeesan, Christopher Stanley, Ananya Bhat, Priya Mali, and Padmapriya Raghavan. Importantly, Ilaiyaraaja, Yuvan Shankar Raja, and Sean Roldan have also sung!
After the successful Mumbai and Hyderabad parts of the Modern Love series, which is an adaptation of John Carney’s international version, Chennai’s stories are getting covered by reputed directors such as Bharathiraja, Raju Murugan, Krishnakumar Ramakumar, Balaji Sakthivel, Akshay Sundher, Thiagarajan Kumararaja and more. Now that the soundtrack is released prior to the series, it created a positive vibe around what’s coming.
– Modern Love Chennai Music Album Review Contains Mild Spoilers –
The album contains 14 songs in total, with five songs and four instrumentals by Maestro Ilaiyaraaja, two songs by Sean Roldan, two others by Yuvan Shankar Raja, and G.V. Prakash composing just one. That leaves us with almost 70% of the album loaded with Isainyaani Ilaiyaraaja’s compositions.
One of the title tracks, Yaayum Gnaayum by Yuvan Shankar Raja, has his iconic musical essence, and the song is brilliantly executed with Shivani Panerselvam’s sultry voice. But honestly, I couldn’t stop but imagine how Andrea Jeremiah would have nailed it regardless. Moving on, Yuvan also composed another song Peranbae for the Imaigal episode, that’s again sung by Shivani Panerselvam and the composer himself. This, my friends, gives the U1 drug vibe for real. Both of their voices went together nicely, and well, which ultimately gets a spot in the U1 songs to sleep well.
G. V. Prakash Kumar only has given one song in the album but made his hallmark with that single track. Remya Nambeesan, who is also an amazing actor, sang this beautiful melody sounding fresh and new. The way she pronounces the syllables might make one wonder whether this is a Tamil or Hindi song because that play with words sounds catchy.
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We have to talk about Sean Roldan because his two songs stood out personally to me. The first folk beat, Jingrudha Dhanga, performed by Sean himself, would take one to the good old days when Ghaana Deva rocked the movies. Sean’s voice is extremely similar to Deva’s, with more rasp. His next melodious track Uravu is excellently done with accent chords striking the heart. Every time we guess a rhythm, Sean surprises us with a new one.
Finally, coming to the remaining tracks by Ilaiyaraaja, the legend, O Goodness, they’re wonderful. When the first 8 counts of his songs played, I could immediately figure that it was Raaja’s because there was this nostalgia stuck with it. Apart from the songs that are spiced up with modern music, his four instrumentals are to be applauded. Each instrumental has a title, and the tune we hear corresponds perfectly. It’s Raaja sir, you see!
Modern Love Chennai Music Album Review: Honest Opinion
Overall, the combination of these four composers is fortuitous. Each of them belongs to a different generation, and seeing their various musical preferences bottled up inside one single album that’s a fortune we didn’t expect. However, some of the songs didn’t hit me straight up but took its time to settle once I kept listening and listening. Unlike those songs, both the tracks of Sean Roldan stuck in my mind the moment I heard them.
Speaking of Ilaiyaraaja, he has a very authentic musical strategy that distinguishes him from others. In this album, it’s evidently seen especially in the song Thee Inbame where Christopher Stanley’s metal voice works just right. As said, on the first go, it didn’t sit well with me, but as I kept hearing it, I saw how Raaja belted something state-of-the-art.
In my opinion, the album is a win but not mindblowing. A win is a win, anyway.
Have you listened to the album? If yes, let us know what your thoughts are in the comment section.
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